I’m torn. The conflicting steps of moving onward, looking forward & planning ahead. Not seeing the many familiar faces, comfortable places, or green open spaces. Our impressionable minds continue to hold on to the memorable pictures we’d seen so many times before. Like walking down sweet memory lane & strolling through the echoes of our unforgotten life. Our tender hearts long for the precious memories & fond moments that touched our daily lives. I can’t help it, I miss that. When I cautiously drive through our fallen down town, I grasp for the visual of what once stood on those empty spaces, now stacked with charred wood. I strive to remember our country bumpkin places, not the scraps of torn metal & chards of red brick. When it’s least expected I’m pleasantly surprised, when I see an old face from the near distant past. Whether I know them or not, they’re now a new friend, I’m glad to see someone I recognize again. It quiets the sadness of watching this process, that’s clearing a way to making new progress. Though many have gone, have traveled afar, I know that their hearts still long for their home. Even those who have stayed probably question to go, but the ties to be here are much stronger than the answer of where to move on to. Either way the transition is uneasy at best. We are stressed, we are stretched, all along we’ve been taken out of our comfort zone. Our hearts have been fractured, we’ve lost our hometown, but our hope to rebuild will somehow be found. I’m thankful, I’m grateful, I’m blessed beyond words! Many have come from afar to be here, to guide us, to show us, perhaps to help find us. We’re slowly moving on, we’re traveling forward, though at times we seem captured by a broken past moment. We’ve started a plan, we’re walking on new land & we’re stepping in new ground. This is the time we’ll see who we are, what we’re made of & how we’ll stand. Let us “dare to dream”, beyond what we feel. We’ll begin to believe & seek once again, for that unexpected hope to call home.
