I have just spent almost 3 weeks in Italy with my dad. The quote or saying “collect moments not things” has been one that has certainly played through my mind more than often. As the last day comes to a close the goodbyes are certainly difficult to endure.  I may have done my part in the area of Italian leather boots, but what I have loved the most are the moments that have captured my heart. I have loved meeting my cousins and I have so many!! My dad is one of 11 siblings so to say the least the number of family members overwhelms me.

I have loved meeting some cousins for the first time and others that I saw about 11 years ago. Most are in my age bracket and there is a connection with some beyond words. I have loved establishing relationships with my dad’s brothers and sisters as an adult and have felt an overwhelming sense of love and kinship that will be etched deeply within my heart. Speaking to cousins with an understanding that we have travelled similar experiences has created love that contains no boundaries of time and space. A depth of understanding that comes from a place that is shared and understood.

I initially had some reservations about travelling with dad. I wondered how we would get along and whether we would at all. After all we have a somewhat “typical” father daughter relationship and tend to bicker – just because we can. What I have loved is that I have learnt to understand him as man, an individual before he became my dad. I have understood his courage and resilience more than ever. His life was one that was led with scarcity. I have heard him say time and time again that life may have been tough but there was a unity that existed amongst the community that is no longer. So when I refer to collect moments and not things I can certainly take on the lessons that I have learnt on what has been an adventure and an avalanche of emotions. They have cascaded from a place that I did not know existed but they now take a special place in my heart in life.

To sum up the three weeks in a blog does not do it any justice. Instead what I can take away are the moments that have captured my heart. The goodbyes have been bittersweet. The extremities of the arrivals and departures are ones that are heart opening. I know that there is a love that didn’t exist before and a heartfelt pain that comes with distance and loss. I have captured moments and memories that are beyond anything that can ever be spoken and only felt. To collect moments with my dad on this trip to his motherland has been beyond what I could have ever imagined. Collect moments, not things. Blessed be and so it is. So it is done. Namaste.

 

With a sprinkle of fairy dust and may magic follow your day.

 

HUGE LOVE

 

Sonia

oxoxxo