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January Thaw

January 24, 2011 at 4:43 AM

Traversing the country goes much like patchwork quilting.  As I travel, I observe the many different people that make up this multi-colored sphere.  We meet at the airport like kaleidoscope patterns, merging and departing on choreographed schedules to the hue that we call home. 

My particular place is a snippet of blue and white in the north corner, but as I cross the threshold of the house I left nearly five weeks ago, I feel little connection to it.  No cross-stitch patterns of sweet sentiment attach me to this particular location.  No familiar welcome smell greets me at the door.  I feel distant, yet obliged to this carpet that needs vacuumed before lessons begin.  But my true home awaits just down the road with a coffee mug and a table of friends, amongst the community that makes up Soldotna.

The first week back always proves difficult when multiple last-minute cancellations need reckoning.  Each thinks they are the only one, but each swatch of fabric is held to the next with a row of stitches that, when clipped, unravels.  Next thing you know, one person's missing tuition becomes four.  As I plan out each conversation, I fret about friendships, contracts, confrontations, and the difference between selfishness and self-respect.   

Yet, amidst this initial icy reception, I find myself being showered throughout the week with an unexpected flurry of random kindness, from a myriad of people I don't even know.  Such randomness begs for an explanation: weather patterns?--sun spots?--year of the rabbit?  Whatever the case, something's happened that's put my heart in a warming trend, despite being minus twenty and mid-January.  

I head to town for coffee, pondering human potential and the contrast between good and evil--when placed side by side, what lovely and interesting patterns it makes.  As I go, the low-lying sunlight through snow-laden branches glitters like wind chimes and magic.

What a beautiful mess.
 

Stay warm!  It's difficult to be away for that long.  But, how wonderful to get away. Enjoy the memories as you settle back in.

 Ooh, pretty pic...

Thank you!