Wisdom and Windmills

Amsterdam has, for a few years now, been a place of retreat for me.  I have frequented the city on vacation more often than any other and have loved spending time exploring the many sites, and discovering those not found in the guidebooks I once purchased and perused as I first got my bearings in Holland.

 

I was drawn to the nation of tulips and windmills by a very dear friend, herself now an English expat who has, with her husband, (and now 14 month old daughter - but more about this little snowflake later) made Amsterdam very much home.  And now, having enjoyed such wonderful times in this city, coming here has become, for me, something of a homecoming.   

We met 6 years ago this month, in the pleasant surroundings of a country house retreat centre where we were both attending/undertaking the Hoffman Process.  Our friendship was one of the several precious gifts I left with at the end of the exhausting and ultimately exhilerating week.  
 

 

 

 

Our friendship has been long-distance and yet, during the relatively short periods of time spent in one another's company, it feels to boast a depth that many will never know.  Facilitated, I think, by honesty.  We say it like it is.  There's not enough time to do anything else.  And that's refreshing. 

 

This week, my dear friend asked me to become one of three 'wise women' to her beautiful daughter who is certainly no longer a baby.  I am yet to receive the Job Description but am honoured beyond words to have been asked, and flattered beyond measure to be thought to fit the Person Specification for such a role.