The Runaway Bunny

I wonder how many times we have read the Runaway Bunny to our kids... I can't really count it. Maybe not as many times as The Goodnight Moon but it's still innumerable.

Whenever Arjun has time off from school, we run away. It is hard for us to be home during holidays and breaks. As soon as we are back from a getaway, we plan for our next escape.

As a family, one day we were talking about our travels. We were reminiscing about all the beautiful holidays we took with Amaey. Even when we could not get on a plane we would go to driving distances like Roseville, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, LA, San Diego, Palm Springs. The boys loved being in a hotel room. Their happiest moment was to order food in the room the day we reached. That was a rule, we ordered our first dinner in and watched TV.

When we started talking about life after Sept 25 2011, we really surprised ourselves.
We went to Hawaii in November to scatter Amaey's ashes. In December we went to Mumbai to see Apurva's dad because he wasn't keeping well since he heard about Amaey. During the February ski week we flew to Michigan to be with Apurva's sister and her family. We went skiing with them. For spring break we took off to New York and spent time with family and friends and we did a lot of sightseeing. Come Summer break, we took Arjun off school a day early and left for Rome, Venice, Florence and ended up in London in July where Arjun and I spent 2 more weeks and then cam back home just in time for Amaey's 10th b'day. His first b'day where we were celebrating without him. Come November, Arjun and I were preparing for our trip to Mumbai for cousin Aditi's wedding. We closed the 2012 year with a road trip to Phoenix, Arizona with our dear friends the Moussa's.

What does 2013 have in store for us? My mother-in-law will be spending couple months with us and we are really happy for that. We have a few places in mind for travels in 2013.... I know we will get there one way or the other.

What are we running away from? Or what we running to?
Traveling brings us closer to each other. We love to travel. That is definitely something we have in common. We love to try different places, new food, and sight see. We like exploring new hotels and destinations. We feel like we are doing something Amaey loved to do. Something he looked forward to do. Maybe he was so bound with limitations that going away felt like a wonderful change from his life. We also feel that Amaey is with us.
He does show up in strange places and in strange ways. While we were at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens Luminaria event, we were completely taken by surprise to see 3 beautiful installations of names and messages of people touched by cancer. Apurva picked up a bright colored ribbon and our Amaey's name is floating in that mix now. While we were sitting in the outdoor cafe at the Heard Museum an Indian family sat somewhere around us... the only reason I tried to see who it was was because this kid had his head down and all I could see was the shape of him and his dark black hair and his hairstyle. The structure was exactly like Amaey minus the glasses. His older brother was wearing the glasses. There are many examples... many instances that I should start making a note of.

Does this read like the Runaway Bunny? it sure does to me. But the bunny does come back home. And when I came back home from my Phoenix holiday, the 2 orchid plants that some wonderful friends sent to us during his funeral, were blooming, again.