Simply visiting Virginia -simply...

Sitting inside a McDonald's restaurant in Colonial Heights, Virginia... my son once owned a house a few blocks away.  My ex-husband's family lived a town away.  I used to have friends who lived in the Southside Richmond, Virginia area.  They were close friends once.  I dont remember really saying goodbye.  I left Richmond, sort of abruptly after finding out that my ex-partner/fiance had been busy cheating on me over the years we had been together.  I visited and processed the idea of moving to Australia during that time.  I figured I would only have the same problems just half a world away and all alone. So I came back and tried to live here as a single woman for a while until I just couldn't anymore.  When the exbestgirlfriend and the fiance/partner (we were together at the time) became a 'thing'...I just couldn't stay anymore.  I quit my job and disappeared.  Relocation at times like these is pretty healthy. It's incredibly hard to be reminded of the events on a daily basis, when I would bump into people in grocery stores, or while shopping and to be asked how 'he' was....he didn't tell people we weren't together.  I just didn't understand.... It was making me crazy.  Moving helped. 

I wasn't much interested in returning to visit this area.  I came because I have a daughter and new 8 month old granddaughter here.  Though we aren't extremely close, we were separated when she was young and she had a step-mother that got her through those teen years... we chat off and on and she wanted me to be part of her daughter's life.  Here I am.  I have parked my van in their driveway at night for a few days.  We shared coffee made on my alcohol stove while sitting in lawn chairs out doors.  It has been nice.

I will stay a few more days as I wait out an delivery from an online purchase, fix those headlights (darn parking lot mysteries), try to stay cool and as I figure out where I am headed next. 

Its too easy to get involved in other people's lives when you are visiting.  I do my best to stay out of their daily events which is challenging at times.  Especially when you care about someone and want to improve their life ... geez mom's the world round visit and wash laundry or dishes and straighten up and fuss over their loved ones....doesn't matter the country or langauage.  I have learned a lot from traveling.  One big important thing I have learned is that people are people...we are all the same, we eat, we poo, we fuss, we shop, we grow, we learn, we get sick, we get happy.... 

Being in and out of a home with a lot of 'things' helped me to remember what lifestyle I came from.  There where times when I had more than I needed and more than I could take care of.  As a child, the bedroom closet and under my bed was always a mess of stuff...shoes, clothes, art stuff, just stuff and dust....  I learned that it was easier to have less so I didn't have to clean up and I could have time to hang out outside climbing trees and exploring in the woods near our home in Eliot, Maine.  I was watching a You-Tube video about simple living from FareshareCompanies last night  and was reminded of how the things we have affect us.  Having less can bring us the freedom to connect with the universe and the All that is All - God.  Less is more - more choice - more time - more creativity -more ...simply more 

And now this post becomes the segway to....I changed the inside build in my van.....(grin) yup I really did!