For many, many years, everything has been the same.<\/p>\n
Slowly, as I back the car\u2014fully loaded, especially with vegetables and still-warm food\u2014out of the yard, I watch with one eye to make sure I don\u2019t knock anything over, and with the other, I watch them\u2014
\nalways a hand silently blessing Mom and Grandma, and a sudden gesture pressing a hand to the temple for Dad and Grandpa, who, spinning through life among soldiers, bids farewell with a gesture of respect.<\/p>\n
As I back out, I always worry about not knocking over those narrow gates of my childhood home, because there\u2019s always a bittersweet knot in my throat\u2014
\nthat after a week of carefree time at home, with Mom, I return to the whirlwind of everyday life.<\/p>\n
Like stepping from shelter into the wind.<\/p>\n
Driving away, I honk and accompany them with my eyes\u2014eyes that for countless years have tracked theirs with that same unconditional, caring gaze:
\n\u201cText me when you get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
And again, my heart tightens, leaving the \u201cPanama Is Very Beautiful\u201d story, where two main characters\u2014Teddy and Tiger (Mom and Dad)\u2014disappear from my horizon, along with their cozy riverside cottage, always smelling of homemade food and garden-grown vegetables.<\/p>\n
Driving the Panev\u0117\u017eys\u2013Vilnius highway, I have plenty of time to think about how lucky I am to have them.<\/p>\n
A home to return to. People who are always so eager to see you.<\/p>\n
Have you read the book Panama Is Very Beautiful?<\/p>\n
I read it twice.
\nOnce in childhood, and once recently.<\/p>\n
The first time, I read it as a fairy tale about two friends.
\nThe second time\u2014as a wonderfully beautiful story about home.<\/p>\n
I drive those 150 km and think: as a child, you read books without looking for deeper meaning.<\/p>\n
Unconditional parental love\u2014felt obvious.<\/p>\n
A roof over your head. Coziness and calm in every corner of the house\u2014regular.<\/p>\n
Food, every tasty bite made for you\u2014deserved the status of \u201cit is simply so, and cannot be otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because in a child\u2019s understanding\u2014it could not be otherwise.<\/p>\n
Then you grow up.<\/p>\n
You leave those cozy homes, smelling of homemade food and unconditional love, to seek your own \u201cPanamas.\u201d<\/p>\n
And only then\u2014in the journey toward your own maturity\u2014you realize: nothing you took for granted, nothing that seemed \u201cnaturally the same everywhere,\u201d existed in your childhood.<\/p>\n
Everything you accepted as self-evident\u2014magically gains meaning.<\/p>\n
And love.
\nAnd warmth.
\nAnd unfeigned, unconditional waiting for your return.
\nAnd the gaze.
\nAnd the embrace.
\nAnd the care\u2014so that only good happens to you.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t scatter.
\nIt doesn\u2019t run out.
\nIt doesn\u2019t appear just by clapping your hands.<\/p>\n
Look for as many \u201cPanamas\u201d as you want.<\/p>\n
Circle the world in rounds and squares.<\/p>\n
Experience it. Taste it. Touch it.<\/p>\n
But what you find when you return to that small, all-encompassing home\u2014<\/p>\n
Those eyes that always wait for you beyond reason.<\/p>\n
That smell of homemade food\u2014which means\u2014\u201cyou are the most important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That embrace\u2014which always comforts\u2026<\/p>\n
That is a fairy tale. One you never have to outgrow.<\/p>\n
Never.<\/p>\n
\u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n
For your own \u201cPanamas.\u201d
\nThe ones that, taken for granted, suddenly become pricelessly magical.<\/p>\n
V.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-17807","istorija","type-istorija","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.devbrothers.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/istorija\/17807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.devbrothers.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/istorija"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.devbrothers.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/istorija"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.devbrothers.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}