Homecoming Week

I recently completed a mission of mercy back to the family manse. While it was a heady week of to-dos and details, there were respites in between of absolute joy.

I re-connected with two of my very best friends from high school--we had not seen each other in over two decades--for an evening out. Eight hours later, I think we were mostly caught up on each other's lives, and fully briefed on all the contact information. Now I just hope we can keep in touch and hopefully make plans to see each other again.

I was the one who moved away, so I'm the one who has lost the connection. I got to hear about classmates and what they were up to. I got to see how the whole area--the whole state for that matter--has raised my high school up on a pedestal of football greatness. They even painted the water tower. They have helmets on display in the convenience stores. There are pennants on every lightpole in three towns.

And I had the unrivaled pleasure of spending time with my dear cousin. He and I were inseparable for years and were pretty much raised as brother and sister--not officially, but in our hearts. We had a meal together and closed the restaurant down. Two nights later, I accompanied my cousin and his two precious little girls to a minor league hockey game. If there is such a thing as an enchanted evening, that was one. We had the best time. And even though they are really second cousins, I now have two little "nieces" who call me "Aunt Susie". That was the highlight of the trip to be sure.

I thought I knew why I had to drop everything and make the trip; thought I knew in advance all that lie waiting for me in the week ahead. But I was wrong. For while those obligations were important and necessary, I could never have hoped to fly into town and spring myself on people so successfully.

Many of the big old trees have come down and been replaced with businesses and new homes. Several thoroughfares no longer lead where they used to. Signs point the way to things I've never known. But looking into the faces that have seen me through a large portion of my life and hugging the ones who fought with me the wars of "coming of age", I knew I wouldn't get lost.

You can go home again. And if you keep your schedule loose and your plans flexible, you never know where home might lead you.