Home

  Is there a place you go to where you feel like you are truly home?  This weekend I ended up going to Vancouver Island which is where I spent formative years of my life. My sister was house sitting in a small town there and I sort of invited myself over to visit. I can't usually afford to go there because driving a car across is so ridiculously expensive! So I walked on the ferry. My husband and smallest son came as well. When we docked on the other side and I walked out to that familiar area where the cars wait to pick you up...I felt that familiar feeling...like I was okay again. Like I was home. It was late at night (we had caught the last ferry) and I started driving through all the familiar land marks heading to the house where my sister was staying.
  When I am on the island I feel like the clothes I choose to wear don't seem so worn and old and what I choose to put together as an outfit seems okay. I feel like everywhere I go I am close to the Ocean and that so many people I see don't expect you to ignore them or pretend they don't exist. They are okay with conversation, smiles and kind eyes. I feel like some of my burdens ease a bit and I can stand straighter. I feel more myself. I remember dreams I have put aside in the every day that is my life and I remember things I enjoy and love. I am surrounded by forest and field, creeks, rivers, artists and stores with personality and character. I love it.
   This time as almost every time I go there (which is not often) I went back to my old home. I crept to my oasis by the creek where I spent hours alone as a child. There used to be an old garden there my granny or maybe an aunt had planted and every Spring daffodils and tulips, violets and more would be growing. Things have changed there now but there are still a few daffodils, there is a vale of violets and the creek has that old familiar sound that brings me peace. It is overgrown the way I remember it, everything is vibrant with moss and I was filled with memories. When I lived on the island I was so young (we moved away at thirteen) but I had so many people I loved so much. Most of the summers I was a teenager saw me on the island spending time with my dear friends. Most of those relationships are just memories now and I am not in touch with the people but I remember them so well and how much they meant to me; how much they shaped who I was and who parts of me still are. So I sat in my garden and listened to a man sing to his dog and I wished that I could live this part of life again. The part where I could sit by a creek on moss covered stones and just listen.






  One day maybe that will happen again.
   I think it is so important to honor those parts of you that were, and realize those parts of you still are. It is important to go home in your heart to where you truly began. That could be anywhere. It does not mean where you grew up as a child is your home but your heart probably knows the first time it felt like it was safe, okay, and right, and in that your heart was truly home. I am thankful my sister made a way for us to come and I am thankful I got that chance again. It brings me back, helps me center and remember. It was a short but sweet trip and I am back in my house with my husband, children, my view of the field, horses whinnying in the back ground and I am so thankful for it all.