I knew there was a possibility that this January wouldn’t be the usual empty, quiet month that I’m use to. Most January’s are about taxes, and cleaning and just being quiet, I had three January’s that took me to Egypt. This year my parents have extended their Christmas visit, their health is too fragile to go back home to Colorado.

My house has officially become a bed and breakfast for the many wonderful relatives and friends coming to see my father and reminisce about happy days gone by. In the background the oxygen machine makes a rhythmic sound, classical music plays on the radio and we quietly settle in to a new normal.

Many of my projects have been put aside for the time being and I’m content to be at home enjoying the little pleasures of life. The joy of companionship with people I love has taken center stage to the hustle and bustle of usual life. We read and talk, I make lots of tea and coffee. We watch nature documentaries and “Great Courses”. Travel is taken vicariously, this week we went to Moscow to see Swan Lake with an HD broadcast from the Bolshoi Ballet. My brother calls us on Facetime from his job in the Indian Ocean half way around the world.

I’m enjoying my very slow life as I take the pace of my elderly parents. Life is in a suspended state as I take care of what is in front of me. I’m on one of the great pilgrimages of life to the place that is most important, the depths of the heart and being.