Love This Flower

There are plumeria trees in India. The one across the street from the bedroom window started to bloom two weeks ago and then the rain came and since then there haven't been more than a dozen blossoms at a time. We are so much a part of the city even though we have only been here a bit more than a month. Last night Bob picked up a couple of things at the tiny neighborhood market and introduced himself to a young man buying bread. Pointing to our building he said, "We live there." "I know," was the man's answer. We are the minority and we are not anonymous. Everyday we are the only ones we see with blue eyes, but are we lonesome? We miss friends and family of course and think about and pray for all of you, but we are not lonesome. One moment an Indian man will be staring at you and the next minute he is returning your smile. If you go far away from home, India is a good choice.

Seeing Old Buds Before We Left

This past year we held our fiftieth year high school reunion. People came from the north and all across the United States from the south.

Some only had to come down the hill from Lemon Heights.

Some came from the mountains in the east and some came inland from the beach.

Some left rehearsals for a dramatic production,

and one looks like he stepped off the page of the year book.

This is an amazing group of people. We were suppose to have a reunion every five years and in the beginning we would be off by a couple of years,

but our tardiness never diminished our caring. Maybe it was because our class was small, maybe it was because we grew up in a small town atmosphere with a bank, a juice factory, a grocery store and Ruby's. Well there was more than that but the high way made a bend in the middle of town and not too many but us stopped.

The reasons may be a little different for each of us but the bottom line is we all care about each other, and we worked very hard to be at one last reunion.

If we were far away we flew in, but many were close enough to have a long, long drive.

A lot of hours were spent in contacting and searching to be sure that as many as possible would come.

And if you are a stranger to this blog you have to know that we feel younger than we look, we are still light on our feet and ready to travel around the world if you ask us.

We may not like the traffic in once quiet neighborhoods, but we like life and we are having fun.

After dinner some spoke about impressions they had when moving to Tustin from larger areas. Some of us were together from kindergarten and didn't even know how wonderful our life was.

As we left this evening we took away little bits of each other to tuck in our hearts. We will be busy in our many circles but we will from time to time remember the challenges of others and we will always care.

For now just remember that at our reunions one person always reminded us with story and poem of what really matters in life, freedom for all. Where I am now at least half of the population is looking for freedom.

Friends From The Past

A number of years ago friends from church when we were twelve years old "found" each other again and we have been going out for breakfast once a year every since. The last time together we celebrated the recent sky dive of the bravest of us all. It was fun to be together right before we left for India. It worked out too to have lunch in Laguna with friends from high school, a special send off with ladies who do scrapbooks together, dinner with our friends who only like to speak Spanish, dinner with old and new friends in San Clemente, Italian dinner with the OC family also in San Clemente, and an elegant dinner with daughter and friends in San Diego. One of us was seven pounds heavier when we left town. It's good the airlines only weigh your bags!