Homeward bound

Off to Portland tomorrow for a fast week's visit. I am eager to see my sister, family and friends. It feels different this time, as the tone in my head of the Christmas visit was very, "Katie returns home triumphant. All hail Katie," at least in retrospect. This time I am going back to check in and to help where I can -- to see the people I love and briefly wade in their changing rivers of life. Oh puke! That sentence was so cheesy. But true.

And since I am on the over the top analogy train, here is another, brought to you by my friend Marco: we all have a mental junk drawer where we shove the things we don't want to see right now. Like any other junk drawer, it fills up after a while. Occasionally we need to sort through it and dispose of the outdated post-it notes and twisted paper clips. But the big things -- the things that sometimes keep the drawer from opening all the way -- have to be eventually put away where they belong.

Isn't that lovely? I hope that I can sort out my junk drawer on this trip -- that I can clear away the bits and bobs and put some of the big things away where they belong. Then I can come back home and enjoy the wonders of an Amsterdam summer.