here and there

I like big suitcases and multi-page tickets, those little horse-shoe shaped pillows and airplanes. I like the little screens built in the back of the seats and having my ipod on all night.
I like holding other people's babies and putting them to sleep. (The parents think you are magic but really you were just a fresh pair of un-exhausted arms.) 
I like it when the little ladies bring you warm face clothes and breakfast with plenty of hot tea.
I sort of like that feeling that you are in limbo, time isn't important, and could those little animated maps which show you are flying over Greenland really be true?
I like getting on a plane in one time zone and with one climate and getting off in others.

I like seeing the world through eyes that are used to Texas but open wide.
I like the houses of friends that have familiar furniture, books and pictures but are set in neighborhoods full of voices, scents and sounds that have nothing to do with where I saw them last. I like it that their children have grown taller than me, not to mention beautiful, wise and even more wonderful.
I like watching friends do what they were made to do - to love and teach and learn.
I like hearing languages full of words I don't understand but also smiles that I do.
I like it when someone else does my laundry and irons everything.

I like being just one of two white women on a street full of dark-haired merchants whose curious stares and enticing wares make me wish I had a million dollars.
I like paper money with colored pictures and lots of zeros. 
Koi ponds with lazy fish and trees for which I have no names.
I like it when it rains. Hard and loud.
I like not knowing what that sound is or where it came from.
I like eating unfamiliar things and praying there are no repercussions.
I like volcanoes - from a distance, rice and sugar cane fields, chickens in dirt yards and strange breeds of cows in pastures on steep hillsides. 
I like it when someone else drives so I can watch traffic - with only occasional gasps. And seeing entire families on one motorcycle.

I like living in Austin, closing my eyes and remembering. And knowing I can adventure again. My heart is very full and very thankful.