Time has come …
To the editor:
to pack up and head home. I’ve been hearing that from migrating friends old and new since the beginning of April.
“Home,” that word that has so very many meanings the place where lives were built the place where children were raised the place where both success and failure are still marked with warm support, celebration and love.
Home is the place where grandchildren wait not always patiently for our return and for the chance to spend an afternoon on the front porch swing sharing their winter stories.
Home is our place of sleep-overs and chocolate chip cookies, boat rides on the lake and days at northern beaches where the water is icily refreshing and can still take your breath away in July .
Home is the place where our pulses quicken, our hearts beat faster and our joy is never-ending. It’s where Sunday dinner makes its comeback where the kitchen is filled and hands are clasped around a table filled with the blessed bounty we share.
Home is our sanctuary I am happy to return and yet
I am sad to go just a little more each year. I leave what has now become a place of extended family and dear friends who do not migrate as we do friends who have places in our hearts just as sure as those at home. Some who wait and not always patiently for our return in the fall.
I am taking this slower, peaceful pulse home with me this year this grounded and steady beat that thrives in us here this serenity and enchanting joy that we found on Pine Island and in the waters of the Sound.
I am taking the music that is Bokeelia lunch on Cabbage Key the shells from Cayo Costa the views in Matlacha all of it. It comes with me, now. It is all part of who I am.
I am taking the deeper connection forged between my love and I during this most wonderful winter this sacred time we have come to refer to as ours. The endless opportunities of introspection have continued to allow us to grow individually and together in ways almost forgotten. My heart is full.
I am also taking the light that shines in the eyes and hearts of those we are connected to. That in itself will be a source of soul-sustenance until I return.
This contradiction confounds me … I am happy to go and sad to leave. I also know that this same contradiction is where my sense of richness comes from. That there is love on both ends of the journey is my treasure.
I miss you already and look forward with anticipation and delight to my return.
Patricia Lloyd
Pine Island