Where We're At

An iPhone shot of the field from last week. Not a
bad place to start most days from.

This morning I set up my tripod in the fairground area across from our house for what is likely the last time I shoot a landscape in Europe. It wasn't in a famous location or a spot that is particularly remarkable in the German countryside. Instead, it was to shoot a view of home. It's a view of a big hill on the other side of the river with the fairground field in the foreground. This field is where we've been walking our dog for the last 3.5 years. The view of that unremarkable field and the unremarkable hill across the river has been the view from our house, a view we've had in our lives longer than any other. It was important to me to capture it during a sunrise. In a month we'll pull away from this house and our street and this town and we'll probably never see that view again, at least not at that time of day. I think we often take these types of places for granted and sometimes we see them so much we forget that there might come a time we will never see them again and then we may forget them. I've lived in a lot of places and I have photographs from all of them. But, they're mostly all snapshots. It wasn't until we moved to Europe that I thought to document the towns and homes we lived in with a little more care. So, this morning I officially closed out my European photographic journey with shooting a place that means a little more to me than some bright city or sweeping landscape elsewhere. It isn't that exciting compared to all those other places I photographed, but every time I looked out a window at home at this view or walked The Dog in the field, I said a little thanks for being given time to live in this beautiful, simple place.

After I came inside this morning, I packed up most of my equipment. Saturday morning we're flying back to the US. We're going for a week to finalize our housing in Akron and take care of a lot of logistical stuff. We're also taking The Dog back and he will be hanging out with my parents who graciously offered to care for him until we finalize the move at the end of next month. That way we will be able to take Cats 1 & 2 in the cabin with us on that last flight instead of putting them in the hold. The Dog will be riding under the seat on Saturday's flight and my computer, backup drives, all of my cameras, lenses, and other misc gear will be riding under the seat next to him. The "powers" that be in Washington are threatening to make passengers check their laptops on flights from Europe to the US like they did earlier this year with flights coming from Muslim majority nations. I want to get my laptop out of here before that goes into effect. We have a moving company shipping nearly all of our belongings, but I certainly don't want my equipment crossing the ocean on a tanker or in the hold of a cargo plane. So, it all has to come back under the seat on Saturday. No important equipment will be checked, of course. All that will remain in Germany to use during our last few weeks here is my X70 and a Gorillapod.

These next few days I'm going to be cramming in as much editing from our trip to Zermatt as I can and I'll probably continue to work on that while we're in Akron next week. But, we have a lot to get organized for the move too and time will be tight. Whatever I don't get to is going to wait until we are done with the move. I'm not going to have my computer for 3 weeks! So, there's a good chance this will be the last blog post for a while, but I'm hoping to keep posting with my tablet right up until the end. There's definitely going to be a lull in new photograph uploads to the website, though. I hope you'll bear with me!

After we return next weekend, we'll be in Germany for three more weeks. They will be shipping nearly everything we own right after we come back from Akron so we'll be sharing an air mattress on the floor with the Cats and eating a lot of carry out on paper plates. It's going to be like camping in someone else's house because it won't feel like ours anymore. In fact, it doesn't feel like home anymore now. All the art is off the walls, we have piles of stuff everywhere- some for the boat, some for air cargo, some to take back next week, some to donate/throw out (massive hassle on that front, by the way), and some to keep here. It's a mess. International moving is like regular moving except about ten times more stressful. Every single thing has to be kept track of, accounted for, and organized- right down to the toilet paper and cat litter. It's hard to believe that by the end of Summer this will all be behind us and we won't have to move again for hopefully a very, very long time.

So, just wanted to touch base, but I really need to get back to editing. Time is short.

Wow.

All Good Things...

"We shall not cease from exploration. 

And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive

Where we started and know the place for the first time."

~T.S. Elliot

It's Friday morning. I'm listening to some music and making plans, organizing, packing, and cleaning up my office. I'm sorting out the stuff I will need over the next month and boxing up the things I won't. The studio lights and drop clothes are folded up and stacked in the corner. I gave away a couple of old camera bags last week. I've separated out the power strips and plugs for European voltage from the ones that work with North American circuits. Bank accounts are being closed, kitchen gadgets are being given away, and old broken stuff is getting thrown out.  Our bicycles are clean and oiled, and the cycling gear is sorted back into the boxes in which they arrived. After 3.5 years of living on the quiet banks of the River Main in Lower Franconia (the longest we've ever lived anywhere), it's time to move again.

My husband is being relocated back to Akron, Ohio at the end of July to take a new position at The Company so The Dog, Cats 1 & 2, the bicycles, the cameras, and myself are going back too. We're going back to where we all started, but it's not the same and neither are we.

Five and a half years is a good run. It is almost double the time we were supposed to be on this assignment. We've seen and done far more than we ever hoped to do. We've met some amazing people who changed our lives. They will be friends we'll love forever, no distance or amount of time will change that. We've seen countless incredible views. We've had some incredible meals. My husband has become nearly fluent in German. I can read, speak, and understand a little French when I have to. We've gone to a few European bike races. We've visited 20 countries. We know Paris almost as well as we know Akron. We've learned more than I could ever put into words. The world we understand now is not the world we thought we understood before.

I can confidently say I will never live in a place as beautiful as this river bank for the rest of my life. I will be forever grateful that I had the chance. Every single day that we've lived in Europe, even the days that absolutely sucked, were a gift we wouldn't trade for anything.

But, it's time to say goodbye. It's time to go home. And, we're ready.

Five and a half years is a long time. I used to say, "Home is where your stuff is." As time has passed though, I realized that home really is where your heart is, and that's usually where your people are. We've really been missing our people- family and friends. Every time we go back to Akron for a visit, that feeling has been stronger and stronger. I won't deny that I was looking forward to getting out of Akron for a while when we moved to Luxembourg in 2011. I'm so glad I did, because in addition to all the things we got to experience over here, now I have a much deeper appreciation for my hometown. As it worked out, a lot of things that frustrated us before are either gone, fixed, or are being improved. And, the veil has been lifted from the things that have always made Akron a wonderful place to live. We see where we're from with new eyes. So, now we look forward to returning, settling down and living in a house longer than we've lived anywhere before. Sure, it's not Paris, or a sleepy German village, or the Alps, or County Kerry, or sunny Portugal, but Akron is home and it's the place this road was meant to end, the final destination.

So, for the next seven weeks things are going to be pretty insane around here. At least this isn't the first time we've done an international move. We have one final photo trip to make- the Swiss Alps where I will hopefully get a few good final shots from Europe. Shortly afterwards we'll pack up all my camera gear and The Dog and fly to the US for the first round of moving. We'll be there for a week getting things in order like cell phone contracts and hopefully getting the keys to a house we've been in the process of purchasing since we were in Akron last month. The Dog is going to hang out with some long suffering family members while we return to Germany for a few more weeks to oversee the packing of the rest of our earthly belongings and tie up any loose ends. Then, on the final weekend of July we, Cats 1 & 2, and four suitcases will fly back to the United States for good. The journey will be over.

And, then the next one will begin.

We're really excited to start the next chapter. My husband is thrilled to start a new job that will be taking full advantage of his personal skills and his unique work experience of the past 5.5 years. I have about 3 dozen photo projects I've been looking forward to starting once we're back in the States. We're super excited to be moving into a house of our own in the heart of the city we love. While I cannot speak for them entirely, I think the cats are looking forward to a time of life that involves lounging in windows with bug screens and the promise they will never have to stay at a cattery again. The Dog can't wait to have a proper yard. I'm looking forward to being able to do all our laundry in one day instead of an entire week. I'm not going to lie to ya, I'm also looking forward to having a car again. You can only photograph so much from the bicycle. It will also be a relief to no longer be local curiosities, to be able to understand what's going on (well, to a point anyway), and to be a part of a community again.

Are we going to miss jumping on the train to go to Paris for the weekend or driving down to the Alps for a little hiking? You betcha. But, there was a time in our lives that those things were normal and that's more than I ever could have asked for. A dream has been lived and now we'll carry it with us for the rest of our lives.

All good things come to an end, and that's part of what makes them good.