Summer in Smallwood

I had posted another blog here earlier but after re-reading it I felt it was too angry. I’m spending the summer in a cabin in the Catskill Mountains with my two-year-old son. Taking a break from Manhattan and the busy life and thinking about what our new life in Germany might be like. Lot’s of reading and research this summer, on schools and culture and apartments in Berlin and Cologne (the two destinations we are considering).
I have serious reservations about leaving America … about being just that much farther away from old friends and family and the food and language I have grown up with. But our son is equal parts American and German and I want him to have the opportunity to know the world and I worry that the country I love has become mean spirited and the source of a great deal of anguish around the world. These are my thoughts this afternoon, on a near perfect day, rich blue sky, cool breeze, bright sun … and nothing but the sound of bird song outside the window.