Monday, August 4, 2008

Home again.......


I am home from the Swannanoa Gathering and back to my sweet house in Willis Wharf. This was my thirteenth Swannanoa Gathering. In those thirteen years, I've only gotten homesick twice. In the summer of 2004, Jacob went backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California and was gone for a month. He was 16. It was the longest I'd ever been away from him in our lives together. I was very homesick that summer at Swannanoa and ready to leave before the week was out. I was ready to be home so that he would be home!
The second time it happened was this past week. The intense part of it was short-lived and came on the fifth day (no matter where I roam, I always get a pull toward home on the fifth day away. I don't know!? I don't understand it either!). But during the whole week I was there, I had a longing for home - my home here on the Eastern Shore. It feels good to say it like that - "MY home here on the Eastern Shore". The transition has finally happened. It was a long time in coming. I didn't think I'd ever feel like this was home.
I arrived home yesterday afternoon to find beautiful canna lilies blooming in the garden. The site of the water, the marsh, the birds, the sun and those canna lilies just took my breath away. My yard had been freshly mowed and the garden trimmed. All the birdfeeders had been filled. The floors were swept clean. The plants had all been watered. There was a bouquet of fresh cut flowers on my kitchen table and another bouquet of white roses in my room. Two pounds of steamed shrimp were waiting in the refrigerator. And a sweetheart of a man was there to greet me, just grinning, eyes sparkling.
I keep pinching myself, wondering, "Is this is real??!".
I walked out to the flower garden this morning and leaned in to smell the canna lilies. Then I promptly sneezed full force! I do believe it's real.
My friends at Swannanoa tell me that I look disgustingly happy! And they all joined in on the celebration that "Yes, I am!". We sang and played and laughed and giggled and talked and shared meals together. And I was surrounded by such a feeling of peace and happiness. Joy. Love. Contentment. Satisfaction. And I've started four new songs (not just one!! FOUR!!) giving me wonderful new insight and confidence - that I don't have to be miserable to write good music. Sometimes the sweet things in life can be just as strong a muse.
Life is good.
Peace all.

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