Returning to Finland after 37 years (the summer of 1971, lived with my friend Riitta Luukkainen and her family in Vartsilä, on the Russian border) has been like no other life experience. I have no analogies to explain the sensations. Is this what people feel like when they come back from death? Feeling so blessed and such love?
Writing of his life in Bombay, author David Gregory Roberts, in his epic novel, Shantaram, helps me name and orient my experience in Finland:
"Personality and personal identity are in some ways like co-ordinates on the street m
ap drawn by our intersecting relationships. We know who we are and we define what we are by referencing to the people we love and our reasons for loving them." Roberts adds that we mark 'I am here' when drawing this psychic map.Well, I am BACK HERE! And loving the reconnections, always drenched in tears. Here, Thurmond and I are with some of the Luukkainens, known for their cucumber-filled greenhouses. The hugs from my Finnish mother put me over the moon.
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