A Welcoming Home

What a trip.

I am so very grateful. There it is again…gratitude. It just keeps coming up. I am so grateful for my family-extended and close, the family I was born into and the family I have found over the years along the way, the spiral just keeps expanding.

I have deep gratitude for those family, friends, friends of friends, and strangers who provided a welcoming home; to me, and to my girls, Mahri and Sierra, as they traveled throughout England during the same time I was gone travelling across the United States.

To step into someone’s home, most often, homes I have never been in, from cities and suburbs to ranches and urban farmhouses, and have beds and meals and comfort and laughter wholeheartedly shared was truly an experience I hold close to my heart.

A Welcoming Home.

It is my hope that I may provide the same comfort to others on their travels or in their day to day lives.

Settling in now at home, it’s kind of miraculous to reflect on what I have had the privilege to do during the last month. Sometimes, when words come too fast, or there just doesn’t seem to be the right ones to convey the emotion felt within them, I have come to rely on lists…

*If you have the opportunity to drive across the country…do it.  It will change you.

(My husband told me, “you don’t get to see the wide open without it demanding to see you…wide open.”)

*Look at the sky.

*If you have the opportunity to shave your head…do it. (Women, I’m talking to you.) I know it’s a stretch, but you will never look at your face the same way, and you will take notice of the faces around you in a completely unique way. You will experience a powerful interaction with those around you. (When Brittany Spears shaved her head, I don’t believe it was a break down, I believe it was a moment of absolute clarity within the chaos of her world. Notice the grin on her face in the newspaper cover…that’s real. Notice the grin that rises to the surface of Demi Moore’s face in this clip, that is real.)

*Eating wasabi peas will keep you awake when driving long distances. Apples too.

*If you have the opportunity to see a real live bison in it’s real life natural world…do it. It’s humbling, awe inspiring, and reassuring.

photo credit: Michael Agnew

*Hang out with people who make you laugh. A lot. Laughing way beyond what is appropriate and acceptable is so, so good for your soul.

*Listen to lyrics.

*Welcome your beloved dead into your daily life. They like it. They miss you too.

*Play music when you prepare food with your family…it’s fun.

*Food should be pretty.

*Hug your family. Hug your friends. Hugs are healing.

*Say “I love you” when you are thinking it.

*Check your tires before driving, and buckle up.

*Do something you haven’t done before…before next week. Go to a store you’ve never been in, listen to an artist you’ve never heard before, eat something you’ve never tried, drive down a street you’ve never driven, “Jeez-O-Pete” (picked up in Michigan) just try something new…”Whatever trips your trigger!” (picked up in Wyoming.)

Today, I was relaxing at home with my husband, trying to settle into “re-entry” when my house was bombarded by teens who I haven’t seen in a month….a warm, exuberant welcome home.

There will be more posts regarding Jackie’s adventures, but the last month’s journey for me has come to an end.

I am home…

…and I am so very, very grateful.

photo credit: Michael Agnew