2018 Dec 11

10 minutes: This was not what I had imagined!

I thought I was just going to be passing through, but there was something about the village they lived in. Something in it called to me. The slow mornings, the peasants bustling around the village square, watching the sun drift leisurely across the sky each day.

It was always warm. Supernaturally warm. The hills and valleys cast their shadows across one another as the evenings fell. The nighttime sound of the insects, doing whatever it was that they do. It was so different from the life I was used to.

I decided to stay another week. The family didn't have the ability to continue helping me, but they cheerfully found another that welcomed me into their home.

I started to make long-term plans to stay there. It was the craziest idea I'd ever had. Never would I have dreamed I would end up in a village like this.

I used to think I was destined for grand things, but something inside me was changing. I started to want different things. I envied the lives they led there in the village, their small festivals, and their humble celebrations.

It was never anything amazing to talk to others about, but to experience it first hand was a whole other story. It was not a story to retell, but a story to live, because the retelling could never match the reality.