Distance is a State of Mind

Last night, my little brother Julian played a sold out concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. I wasn't there...but it really felt like I was. (juliangargiulo.com)

As expats, we don't think of distance in strictly geographical terms, by necessity we come to see distance as a mental state of mind. Often sad about the weddings, the baptisms, the graduations we are forced to miss, we eventually discover with surprise things we would never have realized had we not moved away in the first place: a closeness with our adult siblings that we never had when we lived under the same roof. A stronger desire to spend time with our parents than those people who live just down the street from theirs. We have the ability to gauge with newfound clarity old friendships, the ones we had since we were kids. Are they based on something more than sharing the same zip code? Distance helps one gain perspective and appreciation. And that is not something you can just buy with air miles.