Step 3: Unpack and Reflect

In the days before this trip, we mapped out our plan on a wall sheet that hung in the kitchen. This morning, we move into Step 3 - Unpack and reflect.

Rich: Home At Last

I often drove alone - or alone with thoughts. At times, there were none. Gripping the wheel of a 26-foot moving truck, buffeted by winds and scoffed by semi’s forces a certain focus.

But Teddy Roosevelt hopped on board from the grassy lands of Dakota. And that conversation was nostalgic, timely, and persists:

• I was reminded to keep living a life of purpose, to be courageous in thoughts, ambitions, and the pursuit of justice.
• I heard testimony that recovery from deep trauma takes work, but is possible and worth it.
• The importance of finding and seeing beauty echoed - in nature and in relationships, to restore and sustain full health.

And all of this reminded me of my Roosevelt ‘relationship’, meeting and beginning my love with Laura Goble in our shared work in Portland. It has been an invigorating journey, with both spectacular vistas and a number of sharp, dangerous curves.

Today - as earlier in our relationship - I remember Laura’s important advice: Don’t forget to pause, slow - and celebrate the victories, even small ones along the way.

I woke in my hometown today, and chose to celebrate a little bit - even if briefly - before turning to the ominous to-do lists still ahead. I celebrate one finish line with a little jig on Main Street and a refreshed spirit in a place we choose to call ‘home’.

Laura: Home Reimagined 
In my adult life I've lived on Boston's North Shore, the shores of Lake Tanganika in East Africa, the shores of Lake Erie in Buffalo, in the prairies of Chicagoland, among the mountains, rivers and pines of Portland, OR, the shores of Erie, PA, at the confluence of river and lake in Ashtabula, OH and now back among the rivers, mountains and pines in Milwaukie, OR. Along the road, the road that wound through all those Places and now to this Place, I thought a lot about what Home means.

In some ways, Home is about Place. It's also about People. It's also about Self. Home is about belonging and connection and safety. It's about love of Place, of People, of Self. Moving 17 times in the past 20 years has taught me that Home has to be flexible, able to be carried with you. Home is transcendent - something mystical, spiritual, deeply rooted and always open. Home is honestly seeing, hearing, knowing, embracing and caring for Rich, Sara, and Jacob. Home is honestly seeing, hearing, knowing, embracing and caring for People, for Place, for Self wherever, whoever and however they might be.

In Milwaukie, OR today - This is home. We are Home. I am Home.

Knowing that we were going to redefine home this summer, my mom added this "Home Sweet Home" candle to last December's birthday package. I tucked it away in an accessible place so we could warm our new Home with it upon arrival.