where do you put your happiness when you realize that there is no way that it can all fit into one single life? i suppose you stick it in between prayers of thanks and gratitude and hope that it is there to stay.

i have had the best few weeks possible recently. let me recap briefly (be warned: i don’t know what “briefly” means.). mom, dad, and marc came to visit! hooray! probably one of the best family trips we have ever had, if i do say so myself . i think it was pleasantly upgraded by the presence of robin and the trips we all made to gilly and greg’s house on the north island and to carolyn’s house on the south island. it was wonderful for me, and i think for them as well, for my home family to meet my new zealand families. it all felt very full circle. flash forward a whirlwind eight days later to when my amazing family leaves and robin and i once again find ourselves wwoofing at carolyn’s house!

it always feels like such home when we come back to carolyn’s. i love it here in a big way. a too much way. a way where someone is going to have to drag me away from it. WHY GOD WHY DOES MY VISA HAVE TO RUN OUT ONE DAY?! it’s hard to think about having to say goodbye to carolyn and her absolutely magnetic family for good. that day is still months away, and i have already dubbed it “black whateverdayweleavecarolyn’sday.” waaah.

i haven’t been privy to many successful surprises. none, in fact. i am never the one clued in on it, and the one other time that i have been surprised by someone, it was reid showing up for our graduation and i sat in a room full of his friends and in unison we screamed in horror that he had just walked into our house through the guest bedroom window. after our terror subsided, we hugged and were happy to see him, but that momentary lapse into “who the hell is this guy?” kind of killed it.

but! for my birthday a few days ago, i was surprised and in such a good way. robin and carolyn had been conspiring with malcolm and lindsay for a few weeks to get them to leave the north island earlier than they had planned and surprise me on the south island! IT WORKED SO WELL! the afternoon of my birthday, which carolyn and family had been doing a fantastic job of evasively ignoring, robin, thomas, and i were in the kitchen having coffee and pretending to sniff each other in a creepy-stranger kind of way. all of the sudden, i see mally’s face pop through the kitchen! my one track brain didn’t stop to ask the question as to why mally was in carolyn’s house, but rather it knew that mally = lindsay and that mally + lindsay = squeals and squeals of delight! so they all tricked me, and they did it well. that evening, we had a barbeque and cake and wine and all the things that one wants when she turns twenty three. as i was blowing out my birthday candles, i closed my eyes just for show because i didn’t make a wish. what in the world could i have wished for?

thank you thank you thank you, but who are you?, but mostly just thank you.

love,
maggie

most of the time i try to be one of those people that doesn't say "i told you so," but sometimes the desire to do so is so overwhelming that i just can't help it . . .

on thursday morning, robin and i left our caravan and lindsay and malcolm :( to drive back to auckland to meet jacob :). once we got to jacob, we got delicious thai lunch and hopped on a ferry to a nearby island where we were picked up in a dinghy by julian, a 23 year old german boat builder, and then were taken to a giant catamaran sailboat that sleeps nine people. three germans (friends of jacob's from his study abroad semester in NZ) and three americans all under the age of 24, none of whom had any real ties or remote ownership of this beautiful sailboat. WHAT?!

we sailed around the islands in the east coast auckland harbor for the evening, watched the sunset, made pasta in seawater and washed our dishes in the ocean (we ran out of freshwater in the sink). that night the unusually warm auckland ocean was filled with phosphorescence that was so bright and active that when i looked over the side of the boat, it was like the boat was floating on top of a nite-brite (remember those?!). sparkling stars in the sky and their midnight ocean equivalent - sparkling phosphorescence in the sea.

the next morning we woke up, made breakfast, drank tonic water to stay alive and sort-of hydrated, sunbathed and read all day. around lunch time julian anchored the boat to go diving THIRTY FEET to collect scallops for lunch. the absolute best and freshest seafood i could have ever wanted! no more than 15 minutes from the ocean to my plate. delicious!

that evening we sailed to a sandy beach, rode the dinghy to the shore, and walked the two blocks back to jacob's, took showers, and were introduced to his lovely host parents. good, good day. i couldn't ask for a better day.

i couldn't help thinking about an "i told you so" shout-out to my lovely parents, who, unlike me, are wise enough and old enough to be thinking ahead toward the future. but! no amount of debutante ball connections or interviews with old bosses or labored conversations about money could have gotten me on a fantastic sailboat for free with friends on a perfect auckland day. i am pleased and ever grateful when things like this work out when you don't even ask for them. perhaps it is naive, but why not assume that things like this will work out for the rest of my life? maybe things like this always happen and it only takes the consistent and grateful recognition of them for them to continue. thank you thank you thank you to that big starry - phosphorescence - mountain - ocean - water - fire - wind - life force that i so believe in.

all that being said, my family comes in 19 hours and i am SO SO SO EXCITED to see them and show them this place that is so easy to love.

cheers, to life!

love,
maggie