Sometimes anticipation becomes such a Goliath image in our mind, no reality could ever live up to it. Waiting a few years to see friends not seen for 3 decades makes the imagination soar to unrealistic levels. What will they look like? What kind of person are they now? How will we get along together? So many questions to needlessly occupy the idle mind.
But from the moment the taxi arrived at Athens airport and Georgia walked towards us, the veil of time dissipated. It became just 'the next day' from when I'd seen her last. Always gracious, always caring, no fuss, and after spending those few days together I know she's found her home because Greece becomes Georgia; it's where her soul resides.
We lingered, Steve & I, enveloped in that fugitive bubble of time called travel, spun by the magic that is Georgia, allowing ourselves to be vacationing sponges, absorbing all the Peloponnese delights from rice-stuffed tomatoes, snow-iced mountains, hikes through monasteries, sweet black coffee, colorful & fragrant flower blooms, the air echoed with hearty laughs and heartwarmed conversations of Georgia, Athena, Bruno, and friends. It seemed a timeless place and maybe it is; still a village, modernity tiptoeing through timeless ruins and eternal landscapes.
Thank you, Georgia, for reviving the intimacy of friendship with your sincerity and goodwill!
Love from Steve & Paula
