Cousin Mike, my oldest cousin, came for a visit, the first family we’ve hosted from stateside. We all felt the visit was a great success, gave us a chance to visit after many years apart, and see how they were doing and show how our retirement life is on Terceira.
Growing up, Mike was a strong influence on my education; cars, guns, mechanical innovation, attitude, etc. So it was facinating to see how were similar and disimilar as we’ve aged, learned about family we’ve not seen in years, and compare memories of youth, aunts and uncles, grandmothers, and days of misspent youth (his was misspent….I was a perfect angel! :))
As we’ve distanced ourselves from my family in retirement, it’s refreshing and rewarding to get these visits for several reasons. Reminiscing and catching up is a laugh riot! It forces us shift slightly out of our comfort zone; months of the same lifestyle makes for some stagnant habits, which are useful to break on occasion. Even different breakfast schedules, new broadcast preferences, even lanugage preferences … flexibility is necessary to enjoy, adjust, and evolve. We are loving such things more and more.
Some things are not easy. Changing habits and lifestyle take some effort, and all efforts require some balance. Fortunately, with family and close freinds, the effort always pays off, and the end result is a tighter group, and I beleive family and good friends deserve such effort. Like most things which require effort, the end result is worth it.
Thanks for visiting, Mike and Cindy. I know it’s not easy to travel from Texas to Terceira and back, and we know it was worth it for us. Hopefully it was also worth it to you guys:)
