The road may be long, but no matter your path, how far you have traveled, you can always find your way back home.
              ----Mandy Hale

Going home for Thanksgiving need not be a long trek over turnpikes and through airports.  

There is another kind of homecoming, when we are pulled back in time.  Like a honing tool, the mind's eye can raise up and sharpen almost forgotten memories. Seemingly insignificant at the time, they now spring forth like hidden treasures uncovered.  And we are home again. 

I smile at how so much memory of home is built around things unnoticed at the time, yet each recollection a homecoming, deep and meaningful, to be revisited over and over again.
                      ~ Barbara Kingsolver

A garden is not a place. It is a journey home. 

Journey back in time with me.  We are in my family's large backyard in Southern New Jersey. There are rows of carrots, lettuce, onions, corn, tomatoes, and peppers.  My dad looms large as he surveys the young garden in early spring.  Perhaps my heart knew one day I would be journeying back to this scene, pulling up this memory of our big, strong father bending down to carefully inspect the tender young leaves, looking for any signs of distress. 

When I think of a loving God, I think of a grand gardener watching over fields of seedlings, cultivating life from the smallest shoots to those nearing harvest, each of us with our place in the garden.  

And I am home again.

Home is a Song.  
The verses are varied but the refrain is the same.

Home is a Song

Love is a language, time but a thief.
Hope is a lantern, breath is relief.
Memory is water pooled in your palm,
Home is a song, where we belong.

A heart is a traveler, a soul is a wing
Calling all passengers wanting to sing.
One day we'll arrive where we belong
Where home is a song.
When we arrive where we belong
Home is a song.

---Mary Chapin Carpenter (See YouTube Below)

Commencement

Before dawn, I journey outside for a morning walk.  The precipice of the new day calls to me. Thoreau said, "An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day." 

My fellow walkers and I agree.  Immersed in the goodness of creation, we offer a cheery, "Good Morning".   And it is a good morning.  The horizon glows with first light inviting us to be lifted up above yesterday's troubles to begin something new. 

Each step says, "Here I am."  

And another kind of homecoming is dawning.

Here I Am, The Soul-Journeyer

The miles I have traveled
For mysteries unraveled.
Often lost and scattered 
To find what matters.

Wings made for flight,
And a compass of light,
Over land and sea foam,  
My soul in formation
Without hesitation.
Not flying alone,
Taking me home.
--g. hill

Tapping into our roots is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.
                                  ~ Simone Weil

Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours!

More Thanksgiving Messages:  
See "Rooted in Traditions: Extraordinary, Ancient and Deep" and "A Perpetual Thanksgiving".

Rooted in Tradition: Extraordinary, Ancient and Deep

A Perpetual Thanksgiving

Lay Your Heart on a Pillow of Gratitude

All images were AI generated.

Enjoy “Home is a Song” by Mary Chapin Carpenter