America, the Beautiful

Happy Independence Day!

We touched down safe and sound yesterday afternoon in Boston.  It felt good to be home, or, maybe more precisely, it felt good to leave England without any more catastrophes.  And it felt good to have all that work behind us.  And, maybe mostly, it felt good to have all that adventure under our belts, woven into the fabric of who we are as a family. 

It was hard to pack up our life there, and good too.  As I was sorting all of our stuff and cleaning up our 6 months of messes I  had moments of extreme nostalgia for all that experience did for us, challenges and all.  It knit us together in a way that will hold.  It made us stronger and braver and broader.  We fell in love with so much about England and London, not just the sites and beauty that we saw nearly every single day, but the people and the culture, the idiosyncrasies along with the charm.  England has always held a soft place in my heart, and now I think it has burrowed it’s way into my kids hearts as well, and that makes me happy.  Yes, we had our challenges, but the good FAR outweighed the bad.  There wasn’t a single moment in all that craziness that I wished we’d have just stayed put.  It was what we needed.  And it was beautiful.

But we are certainly happy to be home, safe and sound (though quite jet lagged).  We are staying at the Kruckenbergs till we fly out to Bear Lake tomorrow.  Today stopped by our house to drop off some stuff (it’s still being rented out) and the kids raced through to see some of their prized possessions (Charlie wanted to see his ‘diamond’ from Santa).   I went for a desperately missed run with Heidi and Erica this morning.  The kids are in heaven being with old friends.  It’s good to be home. Life is good.

On our way home from a 4th of July BBQ today Heidi and I sang all the patriotic songs we could think of to the kids.  We stopped and got all teary eyed at the lyrics of America the Beautiful.  I’ve always loved this song (written by a Wellesley Woman) but today the lyrics hit somewhere deep. 

America the Beautiful – Katherine Lee Bates

 

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern impassion'd stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness

America! America!

God mend thine ev'ry flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country lov'd,

And mercy more than life.

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness,

And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

I love America the Beautiful, but I also love England, and India, and Spain, and Israel, and Iraq and the Philippines and the world.

May god shed His grace on all of us and bring us all nobleness, mercy,  self control, divinity, liberty and brotherhood.  

(much more to come on Scotland and all of our England adventures….I have so much more to document here!)