An ordinary day
I love these fairy-tale Swiss days, story book days with the mountains and the snow and the crackling blue sky so clear it hurts. Days when we go sledding and I realize that I’m sledding in the Swiss Alps. The Swiss Alps. And even after eight years, the wonder of it hits me all over again and I’m reminded of these lines from Jhumpa Lahiri:
“I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.”
Simply beyond my imagination.
3 Responses to “An ordinary day”
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Not a week goes by that I don’t say to myself ‘I live in Switzerland’ with an air of amazement and wonder…
India
I’m with you there! Everyday life tends to dull that feeling until the moment we pull our car onto the highway, and every direction is hilly Tuscan landscape dotted with charming towns and old castles. Simply beyond imagination, indeed.
Bethany – yeah, at some point the 8,027th load of laundry does take the magic out of expat living. It’s just living when you’re up to your elbows in baby food. And then you turn a corner, see an old building, a mountain, a castle and bam you’re an expat again.