Over Too Soon

After waiting an entire year to visit family in Georgia, our time is over far too soon. Our extended weekend passed by like a blur and we're now en route back to Kansas City for our Christmas celebration with my family. The kids had such a great time that many tears were shed when it was time to go and it was really hard to be the "adult" and leave on time to catch our flight.

While our country is getting smaller thanks to the prevalance of quick and relatively inexpensive flights, its still a major feat for a family of four to travel from Colorado to Georgia. It's amazing to me that while our country really is small in many ways, it can also be so very large.

Do you know how a tuning fork resonates when the appropriate note is hit? That's how this trip has felt so far - it feels like an internal tuning fork is coming active once again after being dormant for far too long. A part of me still remains - and always will remain - in the South. I've acclimated to the weather, adjusted to the altitude and the arrid air, but my tuning fork still resonates to the sounds of the South.

I find myself remembering the movie Sweet Home Alabama with Reese Witherspoon. Reese's character, Mel, goes to New York to pursue a career and chase her dreams, but when she returns home to Alabama she finds that the Southern lifestyle still fits too. Her ex-husband Jake sagely advises her that she can have "roots and wings." I'm beginning to think that maybe I've ignored by roots for too long to stretch my wings.