Suitcase Heart

Hello blog world.  I have returned from a long hiatus...which actually isn't that long in the grand scheme of things.

Since we last met I have been in...

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Dallas, Texas

Kansas City, Missouri

Seattle, Washington

Juneau/Glacier Bay/Sitka/Ketchikan, Alaska

Victoria, Canada

Richland, Washington

Whew.

So I get to spend the next 4 days enjoying the friends I was blessed with last summer...who have stuck around and become better friends over the last year.  We will have an almost complete reunion this week, and it feels so good to be back here.

I have been wondering this: how is it that so many places can feel so right, so comfortable, so natural to belong?  My inspiration for the thought comes from returning to Kansas City.  I found that it was, surprisingly, comforting.  I have indeed fallen in love with the city, mostly due to the friends that surround me.  I have an incredible community there.  I have history there.  I have a life there.

And then I can come here, where after 3 short months I have friends, I have places, I have place.  And I can return, make a call, and soon be surrounded by people who look me in the eye, ask me about my life, and listen intently.  How do I get to have two places that I have a place?

Missing Haiti, I realize that there too I developed a little life.  I had friends, I had kids who knew my name, I had purpose.  There too, I developed place.

All proceeded by Montrose, where anytime I drive into it I fall back into nostalgia and life.

Home, I see, is everywhere.  God has opened door after door - and the people you meet along the way lodge themselves deeply into my heart.  So to all of you I say thank you.  When you have family scattered across the country, it's nice to have a place to call your own.

Heart-bursting goodness abounds.