Love and Airplanes

Thank you so much for your kind comments on my experimental post featuring my poem and Justin's more artistic photography (words), my dear blogging friends! I am looking for different ways to expand and would like to experiment more with my posts, and I truly appreciate that you are so open to new ways. I write very little poetry actually, and only when "it comes". If I don't write down what comes immediately, I forget it, and then it's gone forever. But in this case, I just started typing and soon the poem was born. I edited just a little. It's my first poem in English, to the best of my recollection. I did translate a few things from Russian to English, but I don't think I actually wrote poetry in English before. So, it was an experiment in more than one way for me. And I would like you to know that even though no, we writers don't write for other people - we write simply because we love writing, and in some cases more than that, we cannot not write like we cannot not breathe or not eat, it's something so essential to us that we will write even if nobody reads (and trust me when I say it - the vast majority of what we write, we do not show anybody, endless, endless pages of diaries, sketches, drafts, etc.). Words are our air, our food, our biggest love, our deepest connection to the very essence of being. But! We are very, very thankful when someone reads and appreciates what we write and have guts to make public. As Shawna likes to say, stories are meant to be shared. It is so true! So... thank you! :)

It was a sunny and brisk day in the neighborhood. Actually, it has been a sunny and brisk week. And if you look for a reason to have such unexpectedly brisk weather here in mild and rainy Seattle, here is one you probably have not thought of yet - MY PARENTS ARE IN TOWN! Yes, yes, straight from Siberia! A big mighty airplane brought them here. I think they managed to sneak out a bit of Siberian weather in their suitcases!

When you are raised by such amazing folks like these two and then leave their warm and wonderful nest for another continent, you don't have many chances to see them, to talk to them, to just be with them, to feel with every cell of your being the love they gave you from the very early start. They love you... just because it is you. It does not matter whether you are fulfilling any expectations, because you are young or thin or smart or successful or whatever. Nothing of that matters. What matters is that it is you, the whole new universe the two of them created. The universe that took off to become something of its own. 

It is our forth visit in a dozen and a half years since I left Russia. First time, I visited with baby Anya after a couple of years living in my new continent. Then, they came to stay with us for a few months when Anya just turned 3. Then we had a very big gap, a long 7 years before we could manage another visit, which was two years ago. And here they are again! It's probably pretty impossible to explain how much it means to me as an immigrant who is trying to make her own path in a new land to have such a luxury of spending a few months with my dearest parents. I am indefinitely thankful to Justin for this gift. And you know what is funny... in a magical sort of way... Justin says that our little cottage feels bigger when they live with us.

So that bright and brisk morning Justin and I drove to the airport to find among thousands and thousands of people who arrive to Seattle from all corners of the world, these two.

I am a bit self-conscious when it comes to taking pictures in a public place when there are so many people around, but it was such an unusual opportunity, the structure looked interesting and the light was good - so here I am.

It was a long wait for us, but you know what Justin said - not as long as it is for your parents. No kidding! Three airplanes and three continents in one extremely long day (considering time zones change) all together. First, they had to fly to Moscow (4 hour flight vs. 3 days by train which they did last time, and it was pretty tiring). Long, long wait in the Moscow airport (almost 24 hours - sootki). Another few hours flight to Amsterdam (3 h 35 min). Another 3 and a half hours waiting. And then 10 and a half hours flight to Seattle. And yet it was the shortest trip they ever had, guys. Yes, we are literally half the world apart...

But now we are together, living as one big family (as I so got used to growing up, because both my Mom and my Dad have large extended families, and they are very close with their siblings). There might be another super happy person on this planet now. But I doubt that they are happier than this one, in a cozy sweater dress/skirt thingy looking right at you from your computer screen.  

Sweater and skirt - Lane Bryant (sale, available now)

Faux leather jacket - Christopher and Banks (last year)

Purse - Lane Bryant (old)

Boots - Aquatalia (last year)

Vintage clip earrings 

Necklace and bracelet - Chico's (last year)

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