Earth's Crammed With Heaven

When I was living in France, I would take walks up into the mountains behind my host family's house. There were miles of trails that led to amazing views of little farms and a giant yellow chateau (a mini castle) that was still fully operational. I would always scheme about how I might make it inside the gates to get a peak at the inside of the place. The other draw to the mountains was a gypsy camp. I had to walk right past it to get anywhere at all on the trails. The French call gypsies "les gens de voyage," the traveling people. I would try to imagine what it would be like to live life on the road, to enjoy moving, not to long for a hometown and the geography around it. This past week I was a gypsy mamma. The fact that I was only this for a week probably negates any claim I can make to the title of gypsy, but it is such a pretty word that I want to continue to use it. My beloved Tom, sweet baby Piper Joy, and I covered 2000 miles in one week in my new mom car, the