Visiting and Revisiting

It's easy to get into ruts--habits, schedules, patterns, views. And I work from home, so my horizon can get pretty narrow.

Last week, I had the chance to Go Places. It felt monumental. Big A. took over the routine, like the amazing dad he is, and I flew away. I visited family and friends and family. I had so much fun! And it shook me up.

I watched many different people in many different places, revisited life on a college campus, went to an art museum, walked in a new city, ate different foods, breathed different air. I needed it.

I'm still not sure what will shake out--that's a lot of input for me!--but I know my thinking has changed. In the moment, on the plane home, I wrote a poem. I'm tempted to try to explain it, but that's not the point. As I sat quietly, alone for the first time in a while, I looked around inside me at all the swirling ideas and feelings and impressions I'd absorbed in the last week.

These words trickled out. That's all and that's everything.

As my soulship sank

Sailed and sank

Hull worn thin

And thinner

By the ceaseless

Wearing water

I stashed treasure

Caches of cargo

Ashore

As I packed each piece

Tight in a chest

Safe ashore

With loving guards

My ship rode higher

Lighter

For a while

Then thinner

And lower

Sinking until

Another deposit

Another soul scrap

Left on

Another shore

Lately

I left my latest

Fragments

And revisited my

First troves and

Then traveled

High in the air

With no way

To navigate

To either familiar

Charted course

Cut adrift

And above

My hold empty

I saw

I need

To walk

Like Grandma Gatewood

Or along the

Camina de Santiago

I need to seek

I need to find

Each scattered piece

Along a land route

My toes in the dirt

Grounded

Rooted

Connected

All my eggs in

One basket

In my basket

In me