Another Suitcase

So what happens now?
Another suitcase in another hall
So what happens now?
Take your picture off another wall
Where am I going to?
You'll get by you always have before
Where am I going to?

The lyrics from Evita and the song "Another suitcase and another hall"-- just made me think of how many suitcases I've had to pack...how many pictures I've taken off the wall...and how no matter where I end up going, I always end up getting by.

I heard this song last year when Katrina was in a musical. She was getting ready to travel to New Zealand and the song made me think of her leaving. I realized she would be following in my footsteps of moving around a lot.

When I first heard the song, I cried. The tears were not sad tears, necessarily. They symbolized the bittersweet feeling every mother must feel when their children have matured enough to take off on their own. A balancing act of emotions which continues all through life.

So there will be more pictures I will take off the wall...There will be suitcases I have to pack and unpack. I've passed this legacy down to my children. They are often more comfortable in an airport or on an airplane than in someone's living room.  There will be pictures Katrina and her siblings will take off their walls...they will pack and unpack many suitcases...and no matter where they go, I know they will be okay because the One who loves them more than I do has them in His care!! What a wonderful assurance!

USA-2008-what a year

Highlights included-

*Sean getting married

*Sean graduating from University

*Sean getting a job in Colorado and moving there with his new wife, Neisha

*Cassandra graduating from high school

*Katrina and Cassandra went to Nepal for the summer

*Daniel moving back to the US

*Me traveling only a couple times during the year- amazing!! (one of the trips was to Toronto, Canada - and I had the pleasure of seeing Niagara Falls)

*moved to the house I am now staying in...wonderful, wonderful house!

*experienced a snow storm like I've never experienced before (and apparently it was record breaking for Washington State)

Where I belong....

"Where do you come from?"

"Where are you from?"

"Where is home?"

Oh boy- how can those three questions be so difficult to answer! Normally, I answer the final question glibly, "Home is wherever my family is."

What happens when family becomes strewn across the globe. My siblings and parents are in five different countries at any given time. My children ventured out each in their own direction. Yesterday I was making a quick trip down to California- and I had alot of time to think while I walked through the airport....my husband is over in Africa right now....so, I was wondering, "Where is home??" Strangely enough, I feel most at place in an airport...notice I didn't say 'home'..but rather 'at place'...just a feeling of 'fitting in' ... a particular sense of 'this is where I belong.'

Maybe home is "where ever I am"-- and I don't think I'm the one who coined this particular phrase. I'm sure I heard or read it somewhere.  Although, no matter where I am- I think travel will always beckon me- with a sound, a smell or a simple memory- as I found true recently when I heard the mournful sound of a train in the distance.

The Distant Call

Filtering through my window

The mournful bellow of the grey snake

Rattling clickity clack

Down the track 

Flooding my sleepy head

With memories of yesteryear

Journeys complete

Travels, oh so sweet

Fleeting cries echo in the night

Like a sleepy lullaby

Rocking along

A traveling song 

Filling my drowsy head

With visions of roads not yet taken

Places yet to explore

Destinations offering more

Filtering through my window

Bellows beckon me to travel

In my dreams

Or, so it seems.