Coming home

Ok, this is pretty close to evening, and I don't know if you can see the sign on this photo or not, but it says MISSOURI STATE LINE....Jed had a two word comment with this photo he posted on the internet. It simply said "Homeward Bound".
This simple comment caught me kind of off guard. Why should that be? Well, for some time now, Jed has been a traveler...a vagabond if you will. He wants to drink in life, and not just taste a smidgen of it. I recall clearly one evening he stopped out to the house, a Friday I think. He had been telling a friend of his about the Boundary Waters area in northern Minnesota where he had gone to school. A cold, wild place. A wonderful place. A place that was a good 13 hour drive from our house. With a smile on his face, he told me that as soon as he got off work he was going to pick up his buddy and take him up there. They'd go out tracking wolves in the Superior National Forest, perhaps get to see a pack along with other beauties of the north woods, eat, and be back home for work Monday. Friday to Sunday night!!! I was exhausted just thinking of it, but they did it, with him driving both ways. When he decides to, he can do just about anything. On another occasion, he grabbed his brother and set out to see the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore. Once they were there, they continued on to the Pacific coast, then to Arizona with its many sights and down to Texas to relive the days of the Alamo, before turning northward and coming back to Missouri.......or the time he was working with Chef Will (spelling?) at the Elms Resort and hearing from the chef about a fabulous crab shack in New Orleans. You got it, with a rattletrap of a car, and very few dollars in his pocket, he set off for Louisiana to taste of the flavors of that crab shack. Coming back, he side tracked through Graceland with it's Elvis lore, then to St. Louis and the famous Budweiser Clydesdale horses. When he got home, he had a shaggy face, a lean look, and 50 cents in his pocket. Good thing the car didn't need another tank of gas. He had decided having gas money to see the sights was more important than a meal or two or a place to lay his head. At night he just slept on the ground, and ate occasionally when it was absolutely necessary to keep going. Self discipline? IN SPADES !!!

He has been so many places. Seen so many things.....so when I saw the post "Homeward Bound", it hit me with a force that he calls this place home. I don't know why I thought that....perhaps because I know Missouri isn't his favorite place....he has seen such beauty, such grandeur, and yet the word "home" looked so absolutely beautiful when I read it in his post, that it brought me to tears. It conveyed a feeling that spans time and place. It brought the most important things in life to the forefront of my mind. My family.....my friends....my children and grandchildren.....that is 'home', and I believe that is what he saw when he put his foot on the bridge that spans the Mississippi River
and brought him into his home state of Missouri. When all is said and done, when the trail finally is finished, we always come home.... in our minds or in our hearts, home is where we love...and where we are loved. I love you Bunny. I'll see you soon.