The earth laughs in flowers. - Emerson

It's a stop-gap week. Life is full of these. Like when you're waiting for someone. Or a call back. Or it's the night before a test or a speech or a course and you're ready but can't get to sleep. The night before you leave on vacation. The aching moments before telling someone you don't want them in your life anymore. These all share this same painful but ephemeral concept of time, of loitering around til the action begins.

I am nervous about going home. I haven't been in the US for longer than ten days at a time in over six years, and a month seems a long stretch to fill. The sheer choice within the aisles of the Wichita Sam's Club will have me salivating, and the opportunity for 24-hour drive-thru Taco Bell and Krispy Kreme, and my parents' plush gym, and everyone being nice all the time - sigh. And there is something eerily wonderful about the consistency of my hometown.

Then I get back and the world changes. This glimpse of island life has me thrilled to be back on the mainland. I miss trees. I miss the thick woods of northern Scotland. I miss supermarkets that don't run out of food on Friday afternoons. I miss having friends. I miss the cinema. I miss Italian restaurants. Inverness looms as this holy grail of peacefulness and beauty and ease of existence. Only a few weeks left to pack up life, again, and move on. Inverness will be my ninth city in twelve years.

The above photo is of wildflowers growing along a wall in Obidos, Portugal. I haven't altered it in any way. This photo makes me happy, and as the earth isn't laughing in Shetland today, I figured I'd put it out there to help.
FYI: I will be flying 8,514 miles (return); the resulting emissions are 1.92 tonnes of CO2; the cost to offset (Climate Care) is £14.40.