Friday, August 21, 2009

A Woman after my own heart...

Ages and ages ago, I taught at a boarding school in Connecticut. I met a woman there, a very smart, beautiful, eloquent, funny, young woman named Launa who had just graduated from college and was beginning her teaching career at the same time that I was beginning my marriage. I taught there for two years and bid her, lots of other teachers, the students, and my tiny one-bedroom apartment behind. I was pregnant with Kristiana and on my way to suburban motherhood in Fairfield County, CT. Launa kept teaching at Taft.

Fast forward several years... I heard that Launa was teaching English at my high school alma mater in Brooklyn. What??? Small world getting smaller.

Fast forward a dozen more years... I heard that Launa and her husband and their two daughters were heading over to France to live for a year. Just because. Because why wouldn't you want to quit your job, pack a few bags, and fly your family across the ocean to live in another country for a year?

Why the heck not? If not now, when? If not you, then who?

So nowadays I find myself checking her blog for updates on how they are doing, where they are doing it, and dreaming about doing such an amazing thing with my husband and two children. Just because. Someday...

Truthfully, what Launa is doing is right now with her family, has always been, and always will be my MONDO BEYONDO dream. For the past ten years, perhaps more than that, if anyone ever asked me what my biggest dream is in life, it is to live overseas with my family. I write that very thing in my journal at least five dozen times per year. In progressive bigger and bolder letters.

Question: Why do I keep declaring that while doing precious little to make it happen??????

Please go check out her ponderings and wanderings. She's a great writer and has recently begun to add photos to her blog. Gorgeous countryside. Wonder-filled stories.

That Launa... I always knew there was something spectacular about her.
And now I know why: she is a woman after my own heart.
Bon voyage, mon ami. (Is that right?)

3 comments:

Lori Duncan said...

OH Gail, You and me both. I write that in my Journal thousands of times. Just don't think Bill and I will ever have the guts and the money to do it. My place I would love to live is in Italy. It's my dream. Yeah for the Woman after your own Heart!

Virginia said...

Gail,

Lately, I have been dreaming of FRANCE and Launa's blog has heightened my desire to travel there. I hope she continues to write of her experience living in Provence.

Virginia

Launa said...

Oh, Gail -- you are too much. It's quite an adventure here, most days. I am so grateful to have found you and to have a soulmate as I feel my way into all of this.

And your warm words just encourage me to keep stepping into each open door...