Excitement

I'm excited these days because there are a lot of great things going on:

1. My guy is coming to visit in June, after four months in different hemispheres.  I am beyond excited, especially since we're planning to do some traveling while he's here, and we'll also spend time wiht my family.  Then we'll go together to the UK for a week and see his family, who will be gathered as his sister gets her Ph.D., and then I'll head back to Mumbai with him and stay there for about 6 weeks.  I'm looking forward to having a good extended period of time together, since we're still not sure how our permanent arrangement will work out.
2. My friend, Erin, and I made hula hoops on Saturday.  I was skeptical, but it was super fun, as was spending the day with her.  We had a great lunch at Eleven City Diner, and always have good conversations about life.
3. My sister, brother-in-law, and niece are coming to visit together in a week and a half, for the first time since fall of 2009 (though my sister has been up once since).  I am excited to hang out with them and for Caitlin to get to see the city, beach, trains, and all.
4. I've been reading a lot lately - and really loving it.  I am always looking for my next reading break so I can get back to my latest book.  I love anticipating the others in the stack that's waiting for me when I finish my current one (a biography of Marie Antoinette).
5. My parents just had their 40th wedding anniversary, and they are going to Hawaii in a couple of weeks.  I have to admit that even though I have done and am planning more travel of my own, I'm a bit jealous. :)

Learning to Love

At times lately I've thought of how much less romantic more mature love seems versus the celebrated "young love".  There was something lovely and pure about being in love when it was new and my frontal lobe wasn't completed yet.  But now that I'm a little bit older (though not actually old, at least by today's American standards) and a lot of my naivete has rubbed off through the course of life and relationships that have not worked out, and now that I've also got a clearer sense of and respect for myself, I am enjoying a new depth of love.  I just don't think I was capable of it even a few years ago.  I'm hoping it's a trend, that in the years to come I will only learn to love better than I do today, with more wholeness and less insecurity.