A Picture a Day. November 2018. On Romania's Birthday

Today, my original home country of Romania turns 100. For a small country in the middle of a Sea of Slaves, it did a good job during these 100 years: won two wars, threw out a regime, shot its dictator in cold blood, became a member of NATO and the EU, gave the world many amazing people, like Nadia Comaneci and Mircea Eliade. Those are the good things. It messed things up plenty, as well ... but we don't want to get into those ... It's a special day. 

It's a little bit unfair: when I think of Romania, I always see a country much older, with much deeper and thicker history than the United States. And, in truth, it is. But Romania as you know it today, mostly, has been around only since 1918. Before then, we were a bunch of provinces, all belonging to different powers, although all one deep-inside. 

Although I think of where I come from with true love and appreciation most days, although Romania is where my roots still are, very firmly, implanted, I feel more deeply connected with the people there than with the country itself. I feel like the country, or the place I am from is the country or the place I am in at-this-moment most times. 

Even back in the day when I was growing up, I figured I had this fluid soul, that kind of belonged to where it was at the moment ... The cities of Romania, the isolated mountains, a train in the middle of the farmland, a beach on the Black Sea Coast, and everywhere in between. 

This fluidity has kept me moving to this day. Just this month I have wandered between the mid-mountains of North Carolina all the way to the bottom of the American land, in Key West, Florida. 

My wanderings this month are documented in this album:

Click the picture to see the month of November 2018 ...

For better or worse, Romania is where I saw the light of day for the first time on the first day of my life. The place where I learned how to write, and read, how to write in this English language. The country where I loved first. Where I hurt first and cried first. It's my alpha point ... It will always be. No matter where I am, there will always be only one beginning of all beginnings ... 

Happy Birthday, Romania! You did well for yourself. Here's for the next 100! May you have peace, stability, and grace.