Home Is Where the Heart Is

My favorite place on Earth is the place I call home. Though I live here in the Garden State of New Jersey, a little town called Richmond in Michigan will always be my home. I grew up there, a small country town adored with fields full of crops and various farms from dairy to horse farms. My kids and I travel back each summer and spend a few weeks there visiting. Generally we always fly home, but this past year we drove. There was something different about the drive back. I do not know if it was the lengthy drive or just my lack of patience to finally be home. My anxiety levels seemed to raise with each hour spent on the road. I could not wait to be home. I longed for the sight of things familiar to me. The long dusty roads, the country setting, animals grazing in the surrounding fields or maybe just the familiar faces that we had all been accustom to seeing. Like Alex, he has worked at he local grocery store for as long as I can remember, I was merely a child myself when I remember seeing him for the first time. He always has a smile, bright white teeth show through his scruffy beard and he has never forgotten us even though we are no longer regulars in the store. I was excited to see the fields full of wheat, corn or soybeans blowing in the breeze and the animals grazing in the fields on my path to home. This sight was what I longed for all year long.

Once we crossed the Ohio/Michigan border I here shrieks of pure glee from the back of my little SUV. My daughter Caden yelling at the top of her lungs with excitement as she read the sign "Welcome to Michigan". "We are home!" she exclaimed. Her voice saddened a little when I tell her we still have two more hours to drive, but then she stated "we are almost home, we will be there s...

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...k like a stream and the little wooden bridge my dad had built so many years ago that make up the path to be near them once again. My dad walks toward my vehicle and I hear the words I have been waiting for since we started our 13 hour drive from New Jersey 'welcome home dear'. I feel a sense of relief like the weight of the world is lifted off my shoulders. I can relax and be myself and enjoy my time with my family and my closest friends. I do not know why but when I am here the time seems to go much slower, the fast paced crazy schedule I keep back in New Jersey a distant memory for the time being. The country setting and serene surroundings beckon with a slower pace of life. We all make our way to the porch and sit with a cool drink in hand and our feet up just watching the cars go by and reminiscing about the old days, full of enjoyment, full of love. I am home.