feels like coming home

Coming in my front door, I am anxious to shed the layers of earthly belongings I require to feel “at home” in the out of doors. The countless totes and bags and satchels filled to the brim with bandaids, juice, water, sunblock, bug spray, diapers, wipes, toys for the car, extra clothes, fig bars and smashed bananas, yesterday’s peanut butter and jelly and the cast of Frozen.

The moment I cross the threshold and ceremoniously unpack the “outside” things, I can settle in to the work of home. I take my home life very seriously. Home is the place where I feed my family. How simple that sounds. But you and I both know home is so much more than that. Home is the space that we occupy without having to ask permission. We have stopped long enough, in time, to put down roots and to own our space. Home is where my volunteer tomatoes come up each summer. Home is where I create a sanctuary for my family. Home is what I long for in joy and in sadness.

Home is where I watch the afternoon sun create sprawling rainbows on the walls of my daughters’ room. Home is where I watch the seasons change with the ripening of the persimmons and the blooming of the crocus. I watch the hawk hunt the baby rabbits hidden poorly in our yard and shudder when the vultures come too close for comfort. This year a nuthatch chose grandma’s birdhouse gourd hanging on the clothesline to call home and a pair of house sparrows have moved into the bluebird house. The sage bushes come back again, threatening to overtake the walkway with their tendrils and the sun has crossed the sky signaling the beginning of summer. From my home I can see the sunrise and the sunset every day, year round. Measuring time in this way, with the sun and the trees, has become my preferred existence. As I look forward to the fall and beginning our outdoor classroom, my dream is supported by the trellis of experiences that has brought me here. I have lived on both US coasts, north and south and have called both city and rural landscapes home. It feels surreal to me to have finally found a place to gather moss. I am thrilled at the opportunity to share it with you all.