Thoughts from an international airport terminal...

Airports are for beginnings. Even if you are ending a journey there, it is the beginning of the next thing after.

I've been in a lot of airport terminals in my life, in the US and in other countries, and I love the feeling of possibility that is there. . .the coming and going, the joy and excitement of seeing new places, returning home and reuniting with people not seen over a short or long time.

I love that sitting in the London airport waiting for my flight to return to Madrid, even though I've only lived in Madrid for 6.15% of my 32 years, it truly feels like I am going home.

The early morning view from my hotel room in Islington, London, UK.

In the coming and going between my new home in Madrid and my original home in California, and in between my loved ones in California and my new loved ones in Madrid, I have felt the need to find a word that captures the melancholic longing of having your heart in two far apart places.

Some words suggested by online searches are hiraeth from Welsh and saudade from Portuguese, but I don't know their original languages to be able to understand if they really fit or not.

I remind myself that the distance is only physical. That the connection of hearts bridges distances far greater than the 5778 miles (9299 kilometers--practicing my metric system) between Hemet and Madrid.

I heard the first taste of Spanish from another passenger while I waited at the gate in Heathrow. My ears perked up and the soft place inside that feels like home did too. The two times I have been to the US since moving to Spain, and also on this recent trip to London, it does feel relaxing to be surrounded by my mother tongue. . .no difficulties in getting my point across or understanding those around me. But I also find myself almost using Spanish when I should use English and drinking in the first words of Spanish that reach my ears when I return.

I was smiling unintentionally as I walked off the plane in Madrid, feeling fresh delight on the bus ride into the city as I passed areas familiar and unfamiliar and thought, I live here!

They say "home is where the heart is," so I have two homes. Madrid is the new one that I have recently adopted but that I think was always waiting for me, and California is the one that has been in my bones since before I was born and that will never leave.

How lucky am I?

Light trees near where we dined the first night in London.