People say you can't go home again, but I'm not sure that's true. I'm referring here to the homecoming I've just experienced, in Missouri where I grew up, with people I knew waaayyy back then.
I love the midwest. I know the seasons are harsh, I KNOW. I grew up there! But the landscape of Missouri (at least) is so beautiful. The smooth flatlands, gentle hills and Ozark "mountains" are simple and powerful. The land provides stability for the beings who live there. The weather is crazy, but you can count on the land beneath your feet. Missouri is very unlike the west coast with all its seismic faults and volcanoes, also very unlike the east coast, such a melange of various landscapes at the edge of the moody Atlantic.
During my 57 years I've lived in every American time zone. Here's what I always say (I apologize if you've heard this already, I say it all the time.) If you get a cold on the west coast, you try to figure out WHY. You haven't been eating well or maybe you've skipped your yoga class too often. If you get a cold on the east coast, you don't have a cold. You take over-the-counter meds and go to work. If you get a cold in the midwest, you get in bed, eat chicken soup, watch movies on TV, read magazines, and recover.
Of course it isn't that simple, but it's a pretty good description of the difference in attitudes. Common sense is highly regarded in the midwest. I love that!
One thing I found marvelous about Branson, Missouri is that when I asked people, "How are you?" they all responded by saying, "Fabulous." Wow. Fabulous?? How cool. In DC when asked How ya doin'? the correct response is Alright. 'Nuff said on that, eh?
Nevertheless, it's good to be home. In a little while I'm going to go put my hands on people. Tomorrow is the Rally to Restore Sanity. EVERYONE I know is going, including me. I'm expecting some very interesting collective alchemy, oh yeah.
I love my work, my village, my city, my life. I am very grateful. Shalom.
That's the DC city symbol carved into the pumpkin on the right.
16 comments:
Home, the very sound of that word invokes a sense of calmness around me. I always thought that old addage you can't go home again simply meant you take your home with you...your home is always with you. Hope you enjoy the rally, how exciting!
Those Missour-ah folks have such a good vibe.
Yes they do Willow!
When I think of home, it's the place I am now, wherever that may be. I can't think of any time or place in my past that I would want to go back to. Maybe when I was six years old or so. I've not kept up with a single person I knew in high school. Not even my guiding days because it all ended so badly.
Home is not just where you live—it's a feeling of rightness or being. I feel at home here in the East even though I spent most of my life in the west. When we go back there now it feels alien to me.
I love the different cultures across this country of ours!
By they way, love the new pic with the hat. Your hair is getting so long!
Lynne why aren't you in FB?
When I go to San Francisco it's very surreal, hard to remember why/how I ever called it home. I never felt at home in Portland. DC has felt like home since the second my big toe touched the ground, and the midwest always feels like home, always always.
I was born in Colorado but that dry, high desert/mountain country does not at all feel like home. Still ... I look good in a cowboy hat. Go figure.
home IS where you hang your hat! and what a great new hat you have and it's lovely to have "hometowns" all over isn't it????
creative pumpkin!!
other difference when one ask "how are you", in the Midwest is, they mean it...really wanna know.
Never been to Missouri but it sounds delightful. I live in Phoenix, have been in Arizona all my life - born here. I'm not sure it feels like home. I love it and the beauty of the desert and mild winters suit me but I feel a tug, a tug to be somewhere else, just don't know where. I like that your big toe told you you were home. I would like to feel that. Perhaps I'm just like Dorothy and need to try somewhere else to find I really do belong here.
Home again, Home again, jiggity jig! I love your description of the different parts of the US.
Reya, I do have a Facebook page but I never visit it or do anything there. I guess I am just not that social a person even though I share my life with the world (or whoever visits) on my blog. I have many friends who I have not "friended" because I don't have anything to say there!
Dang man. I love Facebook. Wish you were more active there.
just lovely Reya - I really love seeing your seasons here in your wonderful photos
I grew up on the east coast, and that has been my attitude toward all illness--take something and soldier on. I attributed it to my working-class roots, but now I'm thinking maybe it was a regional thing! (or maybe both)
I remember after a few months in SF feeling like I could finally exhale. Or that those few months had been one long process of exhaling. I think, at least at that time in my life, it was exactly the home I needed.
Isn't it good to know different places? and to be able to feel how they are different?
Reya, I'm in LOVE with your leaf photo. Glorious! I'm even more in love with your attitude of gratitude. You rock!
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