Home Again

Once upon a time, I wrote a little piece about time passing by in my old neighborhood.  We were soon to be moving from DC to Ohio and I was feeling nostalgic and in a reflective mood.

I’ve moved enough to know that time does not stop just because we have moved away.  Life keeps moving and the space that you once occupied is filled with new people and new commitments.

But if you are very lucky, (and we are), you can return to the places that you lived and for a short time it feels as if you never left.  Friends welcome you back with open arms and cleared calendars.  Dinners are planned and lovingly prepared.  Children are gathered close and kissed on top of the head.  Girlfriends gather and talk resumes as if it had just stopped the day before.  Babies that were born just days to weeks after we left are cuddled and tickled.  Beloved teachers are visited with and old school friends become reacquainted in no time at all.

We had a wonderful week (and yes, the snow DC had was just as crazy as you heard).  We look forward to our next visit with great anticipation.

But a nice thing happened when we drove back into our neighborhood here.  Each of us was glad to be home.  The girls anxious to go back to school and see their friends, JD and I ready to go back to work and for life to resume it’s familiar routine.  For while we would gladly gather up each and everyone of our friends from our time in DC and move them right next door, we were not feeling the pull to live there again.  It was a wonderful experience, but the traffic and congestion are things that we gladly leave behind.  It seemed like another affirmation that we made the right move by coming here.

We’ll keep talking it up to our friends left behind.  Who knows, we may talk one or two of them into trying out the midwest.

Or at least coming out for a long weekend.