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- Go to It's been a strange couple of days
You are back, johnmcnab
and it's good to see you. Thanks for commenting; it's one of those things that never quite goes away. I enjoyed reading you again.
posted by
mneme
on October 24, 2006 at 1:19 AM
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I'm back, mneme. I know how you feel about making a new life. I get the same mass mailings which I usually don't even open. Every year the sender might send a 'merry Christmas' email, but that's all.
This is my life.
This is my future.
That was my past.
posted by
johnmacnab
on October 23, 2006 at 2:44 PM
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Marie-Claire, I suppose in another ten years
I'll get used to it...! I never have that experience of being alien, but I do get confused sometimes.
posted by
mneme
on October 23, 2006 at 6:06 AM
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Wily, yes it does work, and very well
I love being able to open little windows and find someone there. I got a little homesick this evening, watching tv, and himself either didn't notice or wasn't going there.
posted by
mneme
on October 23, 2006 at 6:03 AM
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Blanche, so sorry I missed you
it's the stupid time zones again. I try to sign in mornings and one day I'll work out how to put dave's clock up here. I left a comment in your post today - enjoyed reading it..
posted by
mneme
on October 23, 2006 at 6:02 AM
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Taps,
that's exactly what you do, you just keep going. Still have occasional lapses.. I'm glad you're all here.
posted by
mneme
on October 23, 2006 at 6:00 AM
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Mneme, it is funny going home.
I feel at home and yet I also feel like an alien. I feel just as comfortable in NZ as i do in France but home is home after all. the home away from home is becoming nearly as comfortable as the first home but you still know it is not the real one.
posted by
marieclaire66
on October 22, 2006 at 12:00 PM
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mneme
Good to be here for you my friend, and have y'all there for me. It's a different world now luv, but this blogging does work.
posted by
WileyJohn
on October 21, 2006 at 8:54 PM
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Hi Mneme, we're up and about now, where are you?
posted by
Blanche.
on October 21, 2006 at 2:25 PM
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mneme, What a poignant post. Nothing stays the same for long. Life continually changes everything we think is stable. We must needs go with the flow and make of it what we can.
posted by
TAPS.
on October 21, 2006 at 11:40 AM
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Hi Marie-Claire
late for me tonight.. It's more than just friends really, it's just that there's always something missing. Whenever I am back home, I feel a strong affinity even with the landscape and I'm grateful to be there. I start smiling the second I get off the plane, and I relax completely. And I do find that with old friends you can settle quickly back into conversation. I'm really talking about finding ways to be comfortable in my skin here, away from my roots. Everyone has to adjust at their own pace; perhaps I'm a tortoise.
posted by
mneme
on October 20, 2006 at 5:54 AM
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Ypunday,
I went to sleep after all, and I'm sorry I didn't stay to play. I have no trouble welcoming the boring, I would have truly nothing to do...!
posted by
mneme
on October 20, 2006 at 5:46 AM
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Troosha,
I know what you mean, and it's one of those things you just have to get on with. Most of the time I do.
posted by
mneme
on October 20, 2006 at 5:38 AM
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Smartdog
- thank you, and nice of you to look in. I was reminded the other day how tough some people have it. The lady in my supermarket is always so cheerful; I found out her husband has an incurable condition and she's the breadwinner. Can't help but admire that kind of courage.
posted by
mneme
on October 20, 2006 at 5:31 AM
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Mneme I can relate to every word you say... being in your neighbourhood.
yes I also lost touch with friends, they surface on occasion after more twenty years, the funny thing is, we can sometimes pick up where we left off, without so much of a glimpse of the past, it seems like yesterday... some friendships are hard to kill, evergreen, others have their season and die a quiet winter death, other are shortlived, like a Spring outburst. Home is here for me now, but it will always be a home away from home, there can only be one home, the home of childhood days. It takes its roots deep in the past, at the very beginning of our lives, where the deepest imprint is left.
posted by
marieclaire66
on October 19, 2006 at 11:11 PM
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Very poignant. A blessing that you do count them...2 healthy family members
yet, as the tone conveys, humans are always waiting, waiting....for God or Godot, or the good news, good tidings, good surprises. If we can welcome the boring, the dull, both in weather and dialy expericnes, we will see the connectedness of life and death. All that death is merely represents loss....as Deepak Chopra's latest book LIFE AFTER DEATH reminds us, "death" is a creative force on earth. We die as childrem to grow into adolescents, then die again to be adults, etc. So...did you say come on bloggers and play? Pray and play...I got too long-winded there. Shalom, Neil
posted by
ILLUMINATI8
on October 19, 2006 at 4:36 PM
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Mneme
Yes. You truly do have more than many. Sometimes we forget how much we do have. I wish you the best.
smartdog
posted by
smartdog_670
on October 19, 2006 at 2:03 PM
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Sometimes our "old life" is best perceived as just that.....
the past. It's difficult to begin anew, make new friends, and feel at peace in a new location. At the risk of using an over used adage "home is where the heart is". It is also said that as we get older if we can count the number of friends - true friends - we have on one hand, we are blessed.
posted by
Troosha
on October 19, 2006 at 7:03 AM
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And it would be so nice to be back in the place I began...
posted by
mneme
on October 19, 2006 at 5:26 AM
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mavro
you may be right. It takes a bit of time to build friendships, and they come along in the end. And then they move away! I guess you just get used to it.
posted by
mneme
on October 19, 2006 at 5:25 AM
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Just an observation
I've moved around quite a lot and now I am back in the place I began. What I find is that there are many people who are friendly, but very few that are friends maybe it's just another downside of getting older, we just don't have time and neither do they.
posted by
Mavro
on October 19, 2006 at 5:19 AM
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Just popped in
to say goodnight to you all. It's getting late in this upside-down place so I'll see y'all tomorrow.
posted by
mneme
on October 19, 2006 at 5:09 AM
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kidnykid
woah, that's much too technical for me!
posted by
mneme
on October 19, 2006 at 5:06 AM
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It's always sad to say goodbye to friends,
but it's a fact of life when you move around. I've always remembered something that was said to me, which was that even though it's painful to say goodbye, the fact that you are grieving means that you have touched lives. How much worse if we didn't miss anyone.. what an empty life that would be. - Don't worry, I haven't always been this much in control! You'll get there.
posted by
mneme
on October 19, 2006 at 5:05 AM
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I've been on the Internet under one AOL screen name or other for about that long, so the Internet has been around at least that long. I can remember having to use CompuServe for Internet access because AOL didn't allow you to connect to the World Wide Web at the time. (CompuServe allowed you to access sites beginning with http://, etc. AOL didn't at the time.)
posted by
kidnykid
on October 19, 2006 at 5:02 AM
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Yes I am sure that my kids will keep me busy...along with school and getting settled again...I just hate to leave good friends behind...mainly because I know that they tend to slip away as time goes by...
posted by
twisted_mom
on October 19, 2006 at 4:58 AM
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Hi, muser!
Lovely to hear from you. How are you?
posted by
mneme
on October 19, 2006 at 4:56 AM
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hey...i'm up and about. you're right about the time change...when we lived
in Jakarta, we were 12 hours ahead. it took some getting used to!
posted by
muser
on October 19, 2006 at 4:55 AM
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You will get by.. trust me. The kids will keep you busy and you will be involved in their lives, and yours will fall into place alongside theirs.
posted by
mneme
on October 19, 2006 at 4:55 AM
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I understand what you mean...it has only been two years since I left the other side of the world behind...but as it comes closer and closer for the time to me to leave here...and return to my "old life"...I have discovered that all my friends are here...and I will hate to leave them behind...
posted by
twisted_mom
on October 19, 2006 at 4:53 AM
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