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Back home! After a month and a half in Australia and China, I see Utah with new eyes. The blue sky (unless we are in downtown Salt Lake on an inversion day) for example, and the wide open spaces are refreshing after the smog and crowding of China.

Mostly though, it is a peace we feel, a peace that comes with being back in the place you know, and that knows you. Perhaps the best part of all is going back to church and appreciating our extended neighborhood family.

But the mind still lingers on some of the perspectives gained from places and people so far away and yet so similar of heart:

  • The truly lovely Indian Ocean, the most unpolluted ocean on the planet, with a blue even deeper than the Pacific.
  • The absolutely awesome Gold Coast beach, with its fine golden sand, stretching nearly a hundred miles along Australia‘s northeast coast.
  • The jet boat that showed us the whole Sydney Harbour in less than an hour and scared us to death in the process.
  • The confirmation of a fact we have marveled at for years — namely that we do not have to change our presentation on parenting and life-balance at all as we go from one culture to the next, from one religion to the next, from one economy to the next. Parents throughout the world, when it comes to thinking about their children and their families, have the same hopes, the same fears, the same dreams, and the same concerns. The particular trappings and settings may be different, but the hearts are the same. (see pictures from previous post)
  • My new awareness of rivers. I guess we all know that most great cities are built on rivers, but for some reason we seemed to be staying on (and jogging every morning along the banks of) a great river. Many cities around the world that used their river for a dumping drain for so many years are now cleaning up, and building paths along their banks.

What wonderful, thought-provoking, deeply rich adventure we have had!

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