Where The Heart Is

[Valin]

Ricc=ochet: Dave Carter

8/6/12

 

"Have you ever seen the Atchafalaya at daybreak?" I asked my dispatcher, who had called to check on me. She had gotten me home to Louisiana for some much needed down time after a couple of months spent in the northeast, which sentencing followed kidney stone surgery in Maryland. "You sound like you're in a good mood today," my now angelic dispatcher observed. And why shouldn't that be the case? Only a loving God could take some cypress and Spanish moss, mix it with murky water and a film of light fog and create such singular, haunting beauty. Exotic to some, home to me, it's a welcome signal to friendly territory where the accents are as warm and embracing as the air itself.

 

(Snip)

 

"You ain't been here in awhile," one of the waitresses at my favorite truck stop said after taking a few seconds to recognize me. I look a bit different these days, my goatee and mustache having come in mostly white since the most recent hospitalization. I recounted the experiences of the last few months for her and her smile seemed to grow as wide as the Mississippi itself when she said, "Well welcome home, Hon!" The gumbo flows as freely as the humor here, warming the spirit and delighting the senses. But I had to be moving along after all, because the family was waiting and I was so very anxious to see them.

 

(Snip)

 

In a few days I'll be back on the road. But for now, to be back home where the music is as sweet as praline candy, where humor is as bountiful as iced tea, where a smile and a friendly greeting aren't impositions, the loving embrace of family and friends becomes the antidote to life as a perpetual stranger elsewhere. You see, my heart never really leaves home, and it's so gratifying indeed to have the rest of me here too, even if only for a short time.

 

 

 

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When you're feeling all doom & gloom...its the end of the world as we know it.....remember....There Are Some Really Good People Out There.

 

Also Today is national Sea Serpent Day