Muscle Memory
July 31, 2011
So we’ve been back home for three full days now. I think we’d be an interesting case study for researchers wanting to study human reactions to returning to a very familiar place after many months away. I’ve had a short email exchange with Christine, to whom I put it this way, “It’s very interesting for us to fall so quickly back into the familiar. I find this both settling and unsettling. On one hand, it’s like snuggling with your favorite blanket, one that was put away for some time and now you have back. On the other hand, it makes our year in France feel distant. Standing in the frozen food section of the grocery store (that’s open all day, every day), I didn’t have to try very hard to imagine that France was all a dream or that we hadn’t left yet. It was disconcerting.”
It’s reassuring, too. I mean I know I’m home and I love being home. Everything is so familiar I could walk through the house blindfolded and find my way around. An example of this is in how I walk down the stairs. I always reach for a certain place for support and was surprised, pleasantly, to find myself doing it the first time I came down the stairs. It’s the same for moving about the kitchen, or looking for something in the bathroom. I don’t have to think about it. I just do it.
Switching gears, Melinda and I head in to PSCS tomorrow, the first time there in 13 months. Unto itself that’s an odd feeling. But I have a hunch it won’t take long to kick things into gear. After all, it’s pretty darn familiar.
Oh, today’s picture, a self-portrait, is me in front of our front door. A year ago today, we moved in to our Nantes house and made cheeseburgers for the Boudeaus…
Day 31 (31 July 2010) – Move in Day
French Sabbatical 
Bien venue chers amis. A bientot!