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Josephine Courant's avatar

I love this so much! I read it this morning and then had to spend the day thinking about a moment in time that I would love to call back. It was right after High School and before going off to college in the US, I met up with some British friends who were traveling around South East Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bali. It was common to do a GAP year there (I wish it was here!). Anyway, we traveled from place to place on buses with backpacks and made a destination decision when we woke up. No planning, no over thinking, we looked in our Lonely Planet guidebook and just picked a place, "Oh that looks interesting, let's go there!" and we did. One of my favorite destination was these small islands in Malaysia, where we stayed in tiny huts on the beach, no electricity, no running water, we bathed in the ocean and from a well (that was less fun since I am pretty sure a rat had died in it) but it was so liberating to be completely and utterly off the grid. Almost stranded and yet not quite. The food was surprisingly delicious and I got my diving certification there, and did the best dives of my life. I hadn't thought about that trip since I read your post that pushed me to dig into my memory bank. Thank you for that! Now I need to find the journals that I wrote during that time since I know I did keep them then.

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Diane Burton's avatar

Linzi, as always, this is beautifully written. I am thankful for your appreciation of your wonderful dad who loves you so much. He is indeed an exceptional guy. I’m so very thankful he and my sister found each other. And yes, the world needs more like him. I love that you see in Marsha her love of every stage of her life. It is one of her many gifts. Thanks so much for sharing your memories. I’m so glad to learn more about your earlier years. I love you. You also have many gifts and your writing is definitely one of them.

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