This past weekend I attended my 20th high school reunion with a few of my closest friends. If that wasn’t enough to get me feeling nostalgic, at some point I realized that I have known my best friend, Jo (there we are in the picture) for 30 years. That hardly seems possible, but our sweet third grade teacher Miss Kelley introduced us in 1979. We felt like a couple of fine wines this weekend. (Or maybe I should say single malts?) Anyway, we’re choosing to feel “well-aged”! Where did the time go?

Nostalgia is the ideal word for this week. It’s from the Greek nostos, “return home”, and that’s just what all of us were aiming for. Some of us came home from right around the corner, while others flew in from Alaska, Washington, California, and even Iceland! Nostalgia describes homesickness, or getting sentimental about the past. It’s that feeling that you can travel any distance, but you can never truly go home again.

This is only the first of the season of reunions with far-flung family members and old friends. I expect to revisit this word all summer long! I hope you can enjoy getting nostalgic this summer, too!