Sunday, April 12, 2009

Going Home~



Image by Martina Lang

There is a feeling I get whenever I go to my hometown that always surprises me. It comes the instant that I arrive in that valley surrounded by those familiar hills and mountains. At first it comes in the form of a kind of amnesia, where the memories of my new life disappear. As the car meanders down the winding road to the place of my childhood, I am nowhere else but HOME. In these moments I can barely remember that I ever left and I marvel at this feeling that seems to come up from the very ground I walk upon.

In my mind I can still hear my grandmother's voice showing me the buttercups blooming on the hillside just before town. "Spring is here" she would say, and the way she would say it, those three simple words, would always make me think that the whole world was new and beautiful and filled with promise. As my mother slows the car to round the last bend into town, we both look up at the hill to those tiny yellow blooms that speak to us of all the days before this one, and all of those to come after. We are silent for a moment, before we look at one another and say, "Grandma's buttercups."

Image from Internet
I have heard it told, that in the indigenous traditions, the people believe that the spirits of the land welcome us back to our birthplace. That the elemental beings and the guardians of the earth who dwell in our homeland, never forget us. That we are as much a part of the land as the trees and the blades of grass, as the yellow buttercups on the green hillside.

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Walking by the creek with my little niece, looking up at a circling hawk in the April sky, I think I might agree with those wise indigenous ones. That indeed there is a kind of invisible magic inviting us to sink down into the roots of our own beings and drink up the nourishment of being HOME.

When I get on my plane tonight and I fly over these beautiful and sacred mountains I will give thanks to this good earth for reminding me of this beautiful circle I am a part of. And when I walk through the front gate of my little green cottage, 300 miles away from my hometown, another feeling will greet me. Another sense of HOME, and one that is just as wonderful. When my dog licks my face in his enthusiasm to see me after four long days, and my man put's the kettle on, I will remember my new life in all of it's beauty, just as I have remembered my old life.

Someone once said, "Home is where the heart is," and I think I would have to agree.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes indeed, and how welcoming those little "butter cups" are, thanks Nao, we all miss gramma, but know she is with us always!
home misses you too, but then you have another home with Mark and Gussie, aren't we all so lucky to have love all around!
love you
mom
x0x0x0x0x

Anonymous said...

Greetings from Namibia. A wonderful and amazing place. Our holiday is nearly over. Our last night to be spent in luxury. The motto of the lodge is as follows.

Sun to warm your face in daytime. Moon to guide you through the night,Star to wish your favourite wish on,Sky to draw you to new heights. Love Mum and Dad

Rowan said...

You are absolutely right about this sense of welcome from the area where we born, I haven't lived in my home county of Cheshire for nearly 40 years now but I still get the feeling of 'coming home' when I drive over the county boundary. My roots go very deep here,I can trace back over 350 years of named ancestors and the roots will go deeper than that with the ones I can't name. There is no doubt that my ancestors and the land welcome me back still and eventually I will be taken back there to join them permanently. Where I live now is home too but not in the same way. Lovely post Nao.

Natashia McEwan said...

Nao, what a treat. You are a natural writer, I agree with Rowan -- Lovely Post.

Sometimes the land with its tidal seasons, buttercups and autumnal plums, squeezes a summer peach into a juicy blue sky so large that all of our life, it seems, we have lived there -- drinking.

Nao, I can drink your writing

Have a wonderful home coming again and again.

Janelle said...

oh glorious glorious...! and LOVE the post about gus....oh oh MY....love coming by your blog...always so real and beautiful and inspirational...XXX j

rose AKA Walk in the Woods - she/her said...

Ah, home ... is always found in the heart ... and yet there are those places that sing to our bones ... where our roots sink deep every time we return. :)

Love-love-love the buttercups!

Chimera said...

Beautiful posts Nao..and happy birthday indeed to the very gorgeous Gus. I love the buttercups and your joy of the mountains and all things. Thank you,
T xx

Urban Hideaway Guesthouse said...

You got it, HOME is where the HEART is! Imagine opening ones Heart to the whole world, where is home then? xo Jay

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Such a gorgeous blog. We seem to share some things in common. And I adore Gus!