Our Days Are Numbered

It is now official: I have to be back at medical school on June 1, 2009. Mateo will head back to the US with me in late May to spend a summer of fun with his grandparents in VA while his mom dives into the deep end of med school in NY once again. Bernardo will follow us in August, once he has finished his teaching for the semester and turned in his Music Therapy Masters thesis. Aside from anticipating those three months during which our family will be straddling the Atlantic and surely missing each other fiercely, there is a gamut of emotions associated with bringing a close to these past 2 years in Spain and moving back to NY, this time with Mateo in tow. We are thrilled to be closer to the family and friends that await us stateside and pained knowing how acutely Mateo's grandfather and great-grandfather will miss the little man's enormous presence in this home. I am excited to re-join the world of clinical medicine and yet dreading the time that I will have to spend apart from my boys each day.

One of the many sensations we perceive through all of this is, however, unequivocal: since realizing that our time here is limited, our days have become especially sweet and our awareness of the beauty of our surroundings--the landscape, the family, the rhythm of our days--especially heightened. Running along the river and watching the cows and their calves graze on the greenest of Asturian hillsides is blissful. Listening to Mateo laugh consecutively in the arms of his great-grandfather, his grandfather and his father around a single table and in the span of 5 minutes is a richness that few may know. Our mornings together, the three of us playing and breakfasting and seeing the town wake up outside our windows, are brilliant.

Now, if we could only understand our entire lives with this perspective, knowing that our days together on earth are inevitably limited and so always nurturing a heightened consciousness of the beauty around us. How else could we possibly appreciate all of the many blessings? I am going to employ all of my senses and give it a try.


Mateo preparing to launch the yellow cup (followed by every other object within his reach). The elementary school that Bernardo attended can be seen through the window behind him.