Sometimes, you can go home again...

molo in Sopot

I spoke with my mother the other day. After decades of living and working in the States, she retired to her beloved Poland and makes her home in Sopot, the resort town on the Baltic Sea and my birthplace.
Everytime we connect, I notice the vast changes in her and I can't attribute them all to her retired state or (graceful) aging. It is that European culture effect - she appreciates life to the fullest and does not feel guilty indulging herself in the least. Her days are spent visiting friends, eating out in elegant restaurants, seeing plays and operas, frequenting health spas and traveling 1st class around Europe. There is no pressure to "give back", "do good",volunteer, help out her children and grandchildren - all the staples of the American work culture whereas unless we fill our time with what is deemed as useful - we feel worthless.
Last time I telephoned her, she just got back from her evening constitutional - a leisurely walk on the molo, the famed boardwalk jetting out to the Baltic Sea. Part fashion runway, part lovers lane, molo has witnesses many events in our lives - births, first communions, engagements and anniversaries. With all the changes Poland went through in the last 3 decades (the fall of communism, embracing democracy and the free market economy, joining NATO, becoming a member of the EU) it is good to know that my mom can still walk the same planks on which she pushed my baby carriage so many moons ago...