I sit here nestled safely in these Blue Ridge Mountains
Erasing memories before they take
starting all fresh and new
with a smile as wide as the day was with love.
A comfort washes over me like I have not known in years
the peace and restfulness that comes from the smile of someone new
knowing that this will be home
and home will have its ups and downs,
that home will have its flirtatious flings
and home will have its tragic losses
that home has all the trappings of the summer sun - free in your body to explore
and the confines of the winter solstice, with nesting feelings. loneliness
and hot cocoa with too much whiskey in it.
Home has the parties and the sorrows
and I come to realize that home has always been with me
that it is the people who make it what it is for me
both the joys and the pains
the people I have attached to
as I did when I was a child
attached in love
to the friends I have made along the way
and the friends that were close enough to let me go
to the friends, lovers, and family that have all conspired to set me free
free from the constraints of a narrowly defined sence of place
and a belonging in a home away from home
allowing me to reach out
to step out
to venture out away from that which I have bonded
that which I have become so attached
to see the world
to collapse my heart around my biggest fears
and to come out unscathed
to those who have let me go
to those who have gone before me
to those who have allowed me the closeness
and to those who have allowed me the space
to those who were there and now are gone
and especially to those who are here and now
THANK YOU
for the love, for the heart, for the mind, for the freedom to take you all with me.
to carry you deep in my heart
some for a moment
some for ever
all becoming a part of who this life becomes with every sunrise
and who I want to be at every sunset.

S.