Home

Home

For Zachary who longs for the same things I do, but hasn't yet learned the hidden secrets in the world around him.

I go there to erase this world.

To return to a deeper calling

that draws my mind and body

constantly in one direction.

Home.

But I don't mean my house.

My mind remembers trees and water

dirt and sun.

Forces greater than any man.

Home.

Maybe this pull is millions of years old,

or maybe just my lifetime.

Maybe it was born the first time I was

let loose in a field to run free.

Home.

I long to lay in the sand and feel water.

Hot or cold, it makes no difference.

Long to hear the gulls overhead

and the beach grass beneath.

Home.

I am called to deep green forest,

dense and untraveled,

dappled sunshine,

or drenching rain washing me clean.

Home.

I want to feel the storm,

let it take me.

Or wrap up in a blanket of warm sunshine

to a symphony of crickets and rustling.

Home.

I want to climb to the farthest places,

touch the sky and view the world

as it was always meant to be.

A garden untouched by ignorance.

Home.

I want to feel the fire,

taste the smoke

touch the serenity

of a night lit with flame.

Home.

I want to lay my head down on a pillow

of pine needles and get lost

in a sea of stars

and dream of other worlds.

Home.

But I wonder too,

is their world as good as mine?

Do they have a life to return to?

Family and friends to see?

Home.

Maybe someday I will hide in a

cabin in the woods,

far from world news

and demands.

But today I will go

Home.

To possibilities I didn't know,

adventures still to be had,

life to be lived and loved,

surprises not yet revealed.

I will be

Home.

I will wrap myself around the love of my life.

I will kiss my children and read to them.

I will teach them to dance in the rain,

to be happy not with where they are,

but who they are with.

Because that is

Home.

Home waits for me in many places:

in a forest, in an ocean, in a desert,

at a fair, in a hospital, in a school.

On a patio with a little red wagon.

In a giggle, in a laugh, in a baby's tiny cry.

In an angry fight, in words unmeant, unsaid,

in forgiveness, make up sex, patience.

Even in anxiety, fear, and sorrow.

Home.

Where with God's grace,

there is always tomorrow.