DAY 24, JULY 31, 2013
The last day has finally arrived. I told Emmy when we first started planning this trip to savor every day of the anticipation knowing that when the trip finally arrived it would be gone in the snap of your fingers. We didn't get up particularly early or late this morning. Knowing the final packing would be handled nowhere near as precisely or with the same deliberation that was required for the outward-bound part of a vacation. The neat way everything gets folded and stacked before you board your plane is replaced with dirty laundry and souvenirs squeezed into suitcases you hope won't explode as they are slung into the cargo bays of departing planes.
As a fitting good-bye today, Ireland shed tears of rain so we wouldn't be too disappointed about our departure. Leaving would have been more difficult if we had been faced with a day of sunshine and promise.
Adrian was there promptly at twelve to shuttle us off to the airport. The road there was through a bleaker part of Dublin made drearier by the rain showers splattering our taxi's windshield.
It was a needed family vacation where each of us grew in our own ways. It was a time of reconnecting. It was a time of firsts, mostly for Emmy. It was a time of seeing a part of our past and recognizing it as a sign of our future.
"Cin, cin"
POSTSCRIPT
Not to be outdone, upon arrival the skies of our Midwest home were no less magnificent than the ones we left across the Atlantic. There's no place like home and there's nothing more comforting than to know home occupies a space where the laughter and kindness of friends old and new are heard and felt under the same moon and stars no matter what part of the globe is echoing their cherished and repeated sound.
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