A Journey Home

Living in different places can bring energy, excitement, and experience to one's life. With each new place comes new friends, new customs, new ideas; it builds on a person layer by layer. As each layer is added, it seems as if the base will be forgotten. Perhaps the base isn't recognized by new friends, but it's there.

You know it's there because it's the layer closest to your heart. It's the place that feeds you and makes you whole. It's the place you KNOW defines you--it's who you are. It's the blood coarsing through your veins that makes your heart beat; it's not just where you're from, it's a part of you. A part of you that can't be washed off or unlearned. Time and distant can bury it deeper and deeper, but it's always there simmering and waiting to erupt.

Heading back, with every mile, I feel the layers being shed. The weight begins to lift; a weight that came on so gradually I didn't recognize it until it began to slide off. An energy begins to flow through my veins, a lighter heart, a peaceful soul. It's amazing that the gradual unnoticed buildup oozes off so quickly. Crossing the state line, without having realized I've been holding my breath all these months away, I can finally exhale. I'm home.