The Flow - by Liimu

On Tuesday, I was very proud of myself for remembering to post my blog, and it was all about what I have learned from being in Italy about being in the Flow of life, as opposed to my very To Do List heavy life I live back in the States.

Of course, then I found out that my blog post day is Thursday and so only those of you who happened to be up and reading Motherhood Later at 4 am on Tuesday morning got to read it.

I wasn't going to post today, because we are now rushing around in the throes of pre-boarding mania - packing, showering, checking under the bed for the iPod charger, trying to make it to one last free breakfast buffet, etc.

But I thought it was fitting that rather than waxing poetic on how wonderful my life will be now that I can bring home the spirit of Italia and living in the flow all the time, I can actually see that there is a time and a place for both being in flow and living within structured guidelines.

Last night, on my husband's birthday, we walked for about nine hours looking for the perfect place for us to have dinner and celebrate our last night in Italy and my husband's birthday. We had several people recommend places in a fairly far-off region called Trastevere. Though we had enjoyed the most wonderful meal of our lives just the night before at a restaurant called Osteria Della Vite, on a tiny side street by the same name, we made the trek across the bridge to try to find the restaurant. As we walked into the town, we were both just not feeling the vibe at all and decided at the last minute to turn around and try to find "our" restaurant in "our Rome." (I did find the perfect tank top, though, for two euros less than what it cost across the bridge.)

We walked around for another hour, getting more and more discouraged that we would ever find our place, unable to ask for directions because neither of us speaks Italian. Finally, with just the flow to guide us, we found "our" restaurant and had yet another meal that made my eyes roll back in my head. It was the structure of knowing that we loved our restaurant, combined with our faith that the flow of life would lead us to it that led to the perfect ending to the perfect Italian vacation.

In the same way, I guess I hope to be able to continue to live my life with just enough structure to make me feel like I'm steering the boat, but just enough flow to remind me that I'm not the one making the waves.