12 Memories

We can't believe it's over. What a blessing this time together and with our friends has been.

the day we left for Italy

Sitting in the airport at Bodo on the first leg of our flight back home we're reflecting on memories of our time on the road. We are sad to leave incredible Lofoten, but happy to be headed towards our Lucy Dog and all of you. We collaborate on this perhaps final Jubilee post, by each offering 12 memories of these incredible 8 months.

12 Memories

JT 1 -- The first time we drove into Volax on the first morning in Tinos. The rolling mist, the huge boulders, the little fairy shrine on the roadside, the white village with the church bells ringing and the mulberry tree, and having slow lunch together -- eggplant -- when David saw the baby goat leap.

WM 1--The first time that we walked through Stratford Upon Avon. Little medieval houses and Shakespeare around every corner! My dream.

DO 1-- Swimming in the world's cold waters. Running the cold river pools in Shikoku, sitting in the stream in Takayama, swimming in the Arctic Sea with the jellyfish in Stamsund.

JT 2-- The moss garden outside Kyoto. Going there together on the bus, buying crazy things from vending machines, walking through suburbs, and arriving with some chanting at the mossy fairy kingdom. Walking slowly around the little lake. The Shinto temples with their mouse, snake and rabbit statues, paper lightning.

WM 2--When Rebecca Stevens and I went out for a quick breakfast and talk in London on our way back from Greece. Hot tea.

DO 2-- Smoking a cigar on the hill above Assisi on our last night there. My mind deliciously empty.

Venice

JT 3--The first lunch in Nafplio with Joanie. Those weird raw artichokes with lemon. Amazing eggplant. More food than expected--lingering a long time, drinking retsina and coffee, in the shaded sun, under the bougainvillea. In the photo, Joanie's arm looks oddly large.

WM 3--Going to Cafe Sensi in Assisi every morning at the same time. It was lived like we lived there!

DO 3-- Jetlag hiking in the hills above Kyoto at 5am. Pitch black. Strange bird calls. Temple bells ringing. The little dripping Buddha cave shrine behind the giant bell.

JT 4--Walking around Camden Town with Katy Janda on a quick trip through London, seeking Vegan food, and ending up at the Dirty Vegan Diner with the amazing Vegan Ruben! Surrounded by weird and funky stores.

WM 4--Sitting in the Sento (bathhouse) at a fancy hotel after a LONG day of hiking in Japan. Talking with the other women and discussing the fish heads that we had had for dinner.

DO 4-- Sitting in the backyards of Stefanie and Philipp in Hamburg and Berlin with my mom. Eating and catching up. Old friends, good times.

JT 5-- Waking up in the morning in Stamsund, dancing around in the kitchen to 80s music, stretching, making sure everyone got some breakfast, making multiple trips to the co-op prix.

WM 5--New Years in Assisi. Curled up on a couch at 2:00am laughing and eating kinder eggs while music blasts from the streets.

DO 5-- Climbing IL Duomo with Willa Marie. The odd surreal beauty of Florence. Excited and a little nervous about traveling with her for the next six months.

Mount Sabasio, Assisi, Italy

JT 6--WM and I getting our hair cut spontaneously in Rome, walking around in our funky neighborhood, looking for earrings and socks, searching for the right artichokes and coming upon crazy ruins, sleeping on that incredible hard bed in the air BB.

WM 6--Movie night with the kids in Stamsund. This happened every night actually, it was kind of like an unspoken agreement: the parents go to the nearby bar and watch The World Cup, while the kids buy candy and chips from the grocery store and watch movies! The best, lots of laughter.

DO 6-- Sitting on the arm of our couch in Chicago homeschooling while Lucy sleeps nearby. Leaning into a 'lecture' on the Age of Exploration. Talking about time and culture, the adventures (and crimes) of colonialism.

Assisi, Italy

JT 7 -- The Forest of The Seven Lucky Gods. After a long kind of weird walk in Takayama, not being sure where we were going, finding some things closed, and then turning left up a snowy hill and discovering the huge wooden statues with only us there to look upon them. Leaving coins, climbing up and touching them, drinking water from the blessed spring, the dripping roofs.

WM 7--One night in Assisi when I went out alone and sat in the square with a pastry and watched the people go by. There were lots of pigeons and loud conversations but it was very peaceful.

DO 7-- On a daylong 'retreat' at Francis' grotto. Meditating in the moss and stone.

JT 8-- Delphi. Walking all up and down the hill, looking at and feeling the power. Delighted and awed. The gorgeous pink sphinx in the museum. All the Gods. The Golden Apollo, all the levels of figure and worship in that soil.

WM 8--Eating a matcha tea cake and carrots on the side of the stone street in Kyoto.

DO 8-- The gardners at the moss garden in Kyoto wearing soft leather boots and sweeping the moss with bamboo brooms. The heavenly quiet of that place.

Kyoto

JT 9--Exploring the little magic garden hill that thrust out into the lake in Lofoten, WM doing a Kata in the moss, Dave lying in the grass, me walking on the ocean floor exposed by the low tide and then returning to lie in the grass. Looking constantly around at the rocky cliffs and valleys and cloud veiled summits all around us.

WM 9--Eating wild boar for the first time in Florence at a pub called 'The White Boar'. So good .

DO 9-- The white room in Tinos with curtains and a view of the Aegean. Head cold. Long slow days reading.

JT 10--Meditation. In front of the altar in the Assisi apartment, in the silence of Francis' tomb, in the cold outside San Damiano, before many bedroom altars in Japan, in the dark in Japan when Moey was dying, in Greece on the porch at Andrados and the Garden in Agios Romanos, on the windy beach looking at the Agean, sitting on the bed in Stamsund while Dave was on the floor, lying on the rocks at Uttakliev yesterday, listening to seagulls and waves.

WM 10--Swimming in the cold but exceptionally clear and blue Aegean Sea in Greece. Then changing into our wonderful caftans afterwards.

DO 10-- Turning off the light on the night train from Trondheim to Bodo and saying goodnight to Silas in the bunk above me.

Kyoto

JT 11 -- Walking around Venice on Christmas Eve. Taking pictures, getting lost, looking into Churches, gathering gifts, finding bridges and secret squares and weird tiny Christmas stores, music and graffiti, hot wine, strange fried shrimps, then dinner at Riviera with my loves and singing 12 Dats of Christmas walking home to Jeanette Winterson and our little tree. In the morning, Zombie Chess!

WM 11 --Playing cards with my dad, Abraham and Adrian on the long, long train ride to Bodo. Me and Abe against the Dads. Really close and stressful game.

DO 11-- The potatoes at La Stalla. Cooked in coals and ashes, spanked and cut with a knife, drizzled in olive oil.

Delphi

JT 12 -- Going home. Seeing WM's and David's backpacks ahead of me in airports, on streets, train platforms, hotel hallways . . . Thanks for the packs, Meema! And then at home, seeing everyone, getting so much love and support and such great questions and comments from our whole community, near and far. We could not have done it without you. You know who you are.

WM 12 -- Drinking ginger tea in the Center at Oerol with my mom. Watching the puppets and the people.

DO 12 -- The sound of Jessica and Willa Marie breathing on the tatami mats beside me in Japan as I lay there for a moment before getting up to run at dawn.