Current Events...

When I was growing up, I attended Private/ Catholic schools, where kiddos came to be educated from a variety of different towns relatively close by. My bestest of friends was Ildiko. She and her family lived quite a few towns from me at the time. {I think it is ironic enough to mention that from whereI live today, I pass her childhood home weekly!} Her parents are Hungarian +Romanian...and were first generation here; her mother having escaped communist Budapest in the fase trunk of a car at {I think?} 16 years of age! The home of my BFF was large + spacious. The doors were always open...literally, not even the screens were shut as we little folk were constantly encouraged to get outside. The decor was simple..yet it seemed each decoration was more beautiful than the next; each carrying it's own story. There were always relatives visiting, kids running in the yard + no shortage of young boys named Atilla. It seemed that there was always enough food, wine...and espresso to feed the masses; had the masses decided to show up at their door step. To me, it was just perfect...it was my home away from home. As a girl, I only saw my father, his wife + my 2 younger brothers on some weekends...so essentially, I spent most of my younger years as the "only child" of a single mother. My Mum + I were all but adopted by this loving, fun-loving, unique + most fabulous Euopean family...and I must confess that much of the "open house-everyone welcome" style of family living I live by today comes directly from my years spent with + loving this family. However, this story has a bitter sweet ending...and a strange sort of loose association to the recent events in the news. Right before 6th grade, my BFF's family decided to move back to Hungary. It was heartbreaking. Ildiko and I wrote each other {prior to the days of email!} and when I was 16, I took my first trip to Europe to visit her + her family. For my Mum, the separation was too much to bear. Today, Ildi lives in NYC...and I swear one of the only reasons I keep a Facebook account is to catch up on what is going on in the lives of her + her older sister {also living in the U.S. now}. Sometimes, I wonder what my life might have been like if this second family of mine had not moved away to Europe? In some wonderful kind of way, I think the life my family has created today is not all that different from the one modeled for me by these amazing people when I was small. In a way, they are always with me in that respect...

As it pertains to the events of late, one of my earlier memoreis that will always stand out for me is my Mum + I spending time with our "second family" when the Berlin Wall came down. It seemed as if Hungarian/Romanian family had come from every where + they were all in my 2nd family's house, celebrating, hugging, crying as they watched folks in Germany tear down the infamous Wall on television. This was a defining moment in my childhood...and so I couldn't help but wonder if the recent events in the news today would come to be a defining moment for my littles as well? Sure, there wasn't a massive party + only the Monks would kind of understand the signifigance of what had happened, but still... I wondered all the same, thinking back to my own experience as a young child; watching history in the making... To answer my own thought, at present it seems that the recent events have not had the same impact as when the Berlin Wall came down. Today, we live in a what some would call a "Bedroom Community"; just a hop-skip-and-jump away from NYC with many of our resident commuting to the city to work each day. I wonder if perhaps the events of 9/11 are still just a bit too close to home for us; that the loss is still too heavy to celebrate? I wonder how my kiddos will look back on this time? Will they have discussed it in school? And will the sudden death of a terrible man, after so many years, ever give people the sense of victory that I remember being a part of when the Wall came down? I suppose I will never know for sure. However, I like to believe that things happen for a reason. I like to think that May Day {Just this past Sunday, May 1st} is a time for new beginings...and that after so many years, this closure will provide a true "new begining" for many Americans. That this spring might be the perfect time to fully embrace all things good, beautiful + new. That is my hope + prayer.
xo.