We’re all in this together

Europe 2016 part 2 045 — Buckingham Palace, London. The flag is lowered because of the attack on Nice just a few days before we got to London.

This post is picture heavy and prose light. Steve and I got back from Europe Sunday night and I’m refreshed and exhausted and ready and not ready to get back to life as we know it here in Fargo. I’ve got emails, work, laundry, and more to catch up on. I’ve got to reorient myself with the kids’ schedules, get the kids back into the chore routine. Find that balance again. After all, school starts again in a month. (Yikes!)

I think the best part of this trip was the realization that there are hundreds, thousands, millions of people on this planet who live in many ways the life you’re living and want the same things you want for yourself and your family. Steve was the one who pointed it out at the very beginning of the trip–he had been in Finland a week earlier before I joined him in England. “You realize that everyone is living life like we’re living life. They’ve got jobs, they go to work, they go to lunch, they go home. It’s just like us. Except we have the time to explore the things they don’t have time to do right now.”

It’s true. They’ve got jobs, they go to work, they go to lunch, they go home, and they’re dodging all of the pesky tourists like us trying to just live their lives. They do their best to provide the best life for themselves and their families. I was reminded that all our lives are monotonous and frustrating at times, like when we were buying train tickets from the teller at Waterloo station who was tired and frustrated and didn’t want to repeat himself over the announcements and the anything but white noise all around. I watched the tired father at the Tower of London try to coax, bribe, then threaten his toddler son to take “just a few more steps” so his family could just enter the gate. Or the mom whose little girl was a weeping mess after climbing up about a hundred stairs to get to the top of the Abbey at Mont St. Michel–who was hot and tired and there’s not a water fountain in sight or a bathroom you don’t have to spend .50 Euros on to use. I’ve been there before. I’ve had moments like that with my kids.

London, England:

Europe Trip July 25, 2016 016 — At the Parliament Buildings. See Big Ben? 🙂

Europe Trip July 25, 2016 029 — Love this.

Europe Trip July 25, 2016 068 — We visited the Churchill War Rooms. It’s this amazing underground bunker really close to Parliament where Churchill and his advisers lived through much of the war. There is now a museum with the rooms refurbished in the exact way it was during World War II. There’s also a museum featuring Churchill’s both political and personal life.

Europe Trip July 25, 2016 069 — I love this quote. The pen is mightier than the sword.

The other perspective I gained was that I got a new appreciation for was the pain and trials that humanity has gone through before now–now when I feel at times that the world is tumultuous and losing its mind. It’s easy to say that the world’s falling apart, but I’m sure they thought that during William the Conqueror, during the Bubonic plague, during World War I, then World War II. Walking around these places, seeing the things that remain, watching people live their daily lives I’ve had a good reminder that life is good and hard for all of us. Any point in human history you’ll be able to find that. Any place on the planet you’ll be able to find that. But we humans are resilient. We make mistakes, we make innovations, we dig our heels in the dirt and hold on, we overcome.

Caen, Bayeux, Normandy (World War II sites)

Europe 2016 part 2 116 — Juno Beach, the landing site where Canadian forces landed on D-Day.

Europe 2016 part 2 120 — Juno Beach memorial. I wish every memorial site had pictures of those who died. It makes it much more personal.

Europe 2016 part 2 130 — The Canadian cemetery for D-Day soldiers. About 2,000 soldiers are buried here, at the top of a hill overlooking the ocean. It’s just outside of this really teeny tiny French town.

Europe 2016 part 2 158 — The American cemetery for D-Day soldiers of both Omaha and Utah Beaches. There are thousands and thousands of white crosses overlooking the ocean.

Europe 2016 part 2 141 — Memorial at the American Cemetery. This cemetery had a museum and the whole place reminded me of memorials at DC. The French government gave the land to the US and Canada for their cemeteries.

Europe 2016 part 2 163 — Point du Hoc. This is where American soldiers scaled the cliffs to disarm German guns at the top. They were dropped off 4 miles away (because of navigational errors) from the correct landing site and had to hike over to the right place. I’m just astounded at the courage of these men–all the men who fought at D-day.

I know in a month or so, when J heads back to school again and we go through that awful time of new routine, I’ll feel like the loneliest person on the planet again. It’s the time where I wallow in self-pity and feel like I’m the only one going through hard things. That no one else on the planet knows autism like I know autism. Who knows how awful autism can be. But I know there’s other parents who feel those frustrations at different times in their own ways. I just don’t always see it because it doesn’t always look the exact same way as what I’m going through. We all have those loneliest person on the planet moments, those “hardest I can handle moments” sometimes.

Le Mont St. Michel:

Europe 2016 part 2 225 — Total tourist trap, but it really is 100% worth it. It’s one of the most amazing places I’ve seen.

Europe Trip July 25, 2016 256 — From the top of Mont St. Michel. The whole view looks like an impressionist painting.

Europe Trip July 25, 2016 182 — These bricks have numbers and letters carved into them. I don’t know why or when they were put there, or what they even mean. I know this would be the first thing J would see at the top of the Abby–not the impressionistic view of the French countryside and ocean below 😉

Bruges and Brussles:

Europe Trip July 25, 2016 383 — Bruges is gorgeous. A city of canals.

Europe 2016 part 2 269 — Belgium chocolate in Brussels!

That’s why this may be my favorite picture of the whole trip. Brussels has had some really hard times. It would be easy to just give up, hunker down, and become an island. But this shows Brussels reaching out to the world. They’ve felt pain and know others have and will too. This display shows that humanity and kindness is our prevailing connection. Hard things, tragic things happen, but the spirit of humanity continues to rally and move forward. We humans can do incredible things. No matter where we are on this planet. No matter what time in the human story we live in.

The gate at the Brussels Courthouse by the Grand Place:

I posted a few more pictures of our trip here, on my Instagram page, if you’re not tired of pictures 🙂

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