nostalgia revisited

MOST OF THE PEOPLE I SURROUNDED MYSELF WITH IN COLLEGE WOULD PROBABLY TREAT SWITZERLAND VERY DIFFERENTLY THAN I DO. They'd wake up in this beautiful country and go for a walk, alone. They may sit on the freshly cut grass of the green hills and drink some exotic tea from a hollowed-out pumpkin while eating canned lentils over a fire. They'd bring their guitars, their charisma, and their strange definition of freedom and bask in the natural beauty of God's creation.

I'm realizing that it is generally the newness of a place that makes it intoxicating. At first, like a new romance, everything is illuminated. The colors, brighter. The smells, richer. Every sense heightened and not to mention what happens to the nervous system. We feel passion and fervor for life as if discovering a sixth sense, with the brain releasing chemicals that emulate being on drugs. Though often mistaken as reality, we hold on to this experience with an insatiable hunger, hoping to maintain that same intensity when we look back and we remember.

I was enthralled the same way most people are when they visit this lush country for the first time, and I can honestly say I did not move here in drunken stupor nor because I wanted to start afresh. I moved here because God spoke clearly that it was what he wanted me to do. My growing deepness with my husband proves His hand has placed me here, not delicately, but with certainty and undefinable reason.