Family and friends

It's that time of year again! In just a few hours, I'll be heading to the airport to pick up my parents, who are coming to Spain for the annual summer holiday. They'll be staying here for a month, and for part of that time I'll be in the roles of tour guide, cook and chauffeur. During alternate weeks, when I'm working with seminars at the retreat centre, Mum and Dad will have a more "lazy" time at home.

When I used to live with Ada and Gabriela, we took a photo every year on Gabriela's birthday: it was a photo of Gabriela and Teddi, showing how much they'd both grown since the previous year. This past weekend, Gabriela reminded me that she'll be fifteen soon, and yet we had forgotten to take a "buddy" photo when she turned fourteen. I'm pretty sure Teddi has stopped growing now (although someone once told us that Siberian cats keep growing until they're five years old) but Gabriela continues to look more grown up every day. Looking back at five years of their photos, it's amazing to realise how fast the time has flown.

Meanwhile, my niece Kasey, who turns fourteen soon, is also beginning to look very grown up. I think she's taller than me now, and I can hardly believe how much she too has grown and changed over these seven years that I've been "back in Europe." She won't be coming to Spain this summer, but I'll see her in the autumn, just before her fourteenth birthday.