An Epic Summer

   This next Spring/Summer is going to be epic. For a while now I have felt lost, like I am losing touch with myself. Floating without anything to anchor me down. When you start to forget who you are, where you come from, you need that time to center yourself and reconnect. So that is why this Spring/Summer is going to epic. I’m going back to my roots, back where it all started 24 years ago: Minnesota.

   Where my Grandparents live is way out in the country. It is the perfect place to get away from the rest of the world. The people that live here are the honest, won’t bullshit you type of people. Down to earth, friendly “Kick off your shoes and come on in,” kind of people. A simple way of life, which in this day and time; with all of the new gadgets that make your life “easier”, the double java mocha espressos everyone is shooting, the everyday hustle and bustle to get to work; simple is something that gets put on the backburner and forgotten about. Pretty soon simple will just be another myth, along with morals and chivalry, however I digress.

  I’m looking forward to weeding my Grandparents ½ acre garden. Wow! I really can’t believe I just said that! Growing up, that was the biggest chore we tried to avoid. However I will say this: I’ll take volunteers if we have any takers. Just helping to take care of the general upkeep of the place. My Grandparents are getting older, and it is a lot of them to keep up with. It will feel good to help them, and learn and relearn a few things in the process.

 

  When night falls in good ol’ Belvidere Mills, the sky is the clearest. It will be great to just lay a blanket down, a bottle of wine, and just stargaze, with nothing except the cows in the next field over, mooing a serenade. I miss how green and wooded it is there in the summer, sheltered and safe, a world if its own. Of course one of the biggest highlights of the trip, is that towards the end of the summer I will be an Aunty. Words fail to express my excitement.

  At 18, when I left home, I thought: “Ha! Hell will freeze over before I go back to that place! I’ll make my own way in this world dammit.” Which is true, and I have done so. However with age comes the knowledge that I know less than I thought I did at 18, and maybe, just maybe Grandma and Grandpa knew what they were talking about and were onto something. Of course because I am stubborn, I can’t give them full credit…..of course!

  There is lots of catching up to do. People I have not had the chance to visit with for 6 yrs. Places I have not laid eyes on in just as long. I would like to visit my Great-Grandmas old farm and see what modern improvements have been made. Honestly I really just look forward to running barefoot, being a complete and utter wild child again. Well, at least for the summer.