Like putting away Christmas Lights

I love being home with my family. There is something so good about being with those who know you so intimately and knowing they'll love you no matter what. Laughing until your stomach hurts (I think nonstop family time would be the best way to reach bucket list item 138), an abundance of conversations that mean everything but have absolutely nothing to do with anything, catching up... although this always leaves me feeling a little bit nostalgic.

Do you ever feel a little sad when you see how everyone has changed? Its not really a bad thing, life is beautiful because we are constantly able to mold ourselves into who we want to be, but it leaves a certain feeling... like watching a dusting of snow melt away or seeing the last of the Christmas decorations return to their boxes. You know that something beautiful happened and you aren't seeing things in their full majesty, just glimpses of how we all have become new people and then we go our different ways again. I call home plenty and I know I'm supposed to be in Arizona but part of me wishes that His plan were different. I still feel like I miss so much.

When I was at church last Sunday I remembered this poem I wrote a few months back. I've already posted it here before but I'm reposting it because its my blog and I can do whatever I want with it... at least I could if I were better at html. I need to research things so those huge pictures don't eat up the things I've put in the margins... So anyways, here's the poem.

Coming Back Home

When I come back home
it feels like everything should be exactly the way I left it.
The way its always been.
Sheltered, protected,
Preserved like a historic brick building
An ancient monument,
Forever in a snow globe,
My memories trapped in a timeless bubble.

Yet each time I come home
I see that fragile bubble has popped.
The businesses and buildings have shifted about like pieces on a checker board
Those friendly old faces seem the same
But the people behind them aren't who they used to be.

New faces are everywhere.
They look at me as if I'm the novelty
They don't know that this is still my place.