For those of you who like to travel, you understand. It gets in your blood, and after you've been idle in one location for a while it feels like being cooped up in a small cabin all winter - the proverbial "cabin fever".
Well, I've hit that point again. If given the opportunity, I'd be at the airport tonight, or loading up the car for a long road trip. Come on, twist my arm...
Just got a note from a friend who is heading to Ireland in a couple of weeks. Aah!
But aside from discovering new places while traveling (which I love to do), there is something about those places you've been - those that mean something special to you. From time-to-time they will call to you, a veritable siren to your conscience.
There are a few places like that for me, but two in particular that reign.
First there is my home, where I grew up. Kansas. A lot of people have driven through Kansas with the only lasting memory that they couldn't wait for it to end. I can understand that. For hundreds of miles there is nothing but farm crops and ripening prairie grasses.
But for me - I hear music. There is music there that is just waiting to be realized. I have come to know that there is beauty to be found anywhere you are in nature. Sometimes it assaults your senses. Sometimes it chooses to call to you in subtle urgings to look longer, deeper, closer.
Every now and then, my mind will wonder to the Great Plains and get stuck there for a bit.
For those of you who know me, this will come as no surprise, but another place that calls to me in this way is Ireland. Having been there multiple times has enabled us to become familiar with it. That, and the fact that when we are there it seems so much like home, makes it hard to ignore.
In the same way that I feel rooted to the plains, I have a similar connection to the Emerald Isle. But there is something different, as well. My roots in Kansas grew naturally through my years of growing up. They run deep and strong. The roots that have grown for me in Ireland have grown quickly and are still quite shallow, but they're tenacious, nonetheless.
I enjoyed traveling from a young age, but I never had this burning urge to "get outta Dodge" (well, Pratt, actually), as some I have known. No, instead, I simply knew when it was time to go and never regretted the leaving. I look back fondly on my youth, but have no desire to return permanently to that place. Yet it calls still. I hear it call me to never forget, to always remember. It's undemanding, yet persistent.
Ireland, on the other hand, is somewhat more forceful in her approach. Eire (her true name) will often cause me to lose myself in thoughts of being there; driving through the country, exploring ruins, walking down the street, sitting in the park, engaging with people. With Ireland, I get glimpses of what could or will be, not what once was. I think that's why there seems to be more of an urgency when my thoughts are taken there; why it demands more of my mind and heart.
Ireland will be our new home, and has already begun to be so insofar as it has captured my heart. I will always have a divided heart, though. Part will always be in Kansas. A huge, HUGE part will be wherever our daughter Molly is. Part will be where we are.
Regarding Florida -- we have a home here with the people we know and love, and it will be difficult to leave them. But as for the place -- I don't expect it to call to me once we leave. After 20 years I never have felt like a Floridian. I could probably live here the rest of my days and never experience that.
All that to say... "When do we leave?"
Well, I have taken this far beyond what I had planned, and I'm sure you have better things to do, so I believe it's time to close.
Charis and Shalom...
