Here in my new home, I am most reminded of where I came from in the oddest of places -- like the wine aisle at the grocery store. I was grocery shopping tonight and I cut through the wine aisle to get to the front of the store. It took me 15 minutes to get from one end to the other. I just crept along, reading the names. To everyone else they are brands of wine -- to me they are places...Mondavi, Valley of the Moon, Kenwood, Domaine Carneros, Kendall-Jackson, even Rosemont Estate -- which I think is Australian, but my hated ex-roommate Denise worked there. I was trying to describe the castle near Kenwood to someone recently and found it on Google. (Imagine my surprise to learn the old gothic mansion was built the year before I moved there!) In all my years there I never knew it's name, but I would hold my breath when I got to that part of Highway 12 and try not to crash while I stared at it out the window. www.ledson.com
Lately a lot of people have been asking me if I miss California. My answer is always the same -- I miss my friends, but not really the places. In my heart I know that isn't really true. Every day the Bay Area is on the news with more tales of rain. I feel like I'm still one of them, even though I am so far away and I was there so long ago. I guess that's what it means to be a native of someplace -- it will always be a part of you.
2 comments:
California Rules and everywhere else sucks!!! I never realized how great it is there until I moved to Nevada. Nothing will make you miss the fog more than a week of 115 degrees in the shade.
I must disagree with "anonymous". Every place on earth has it's own beauty, even if we can't appreciate it....Heather, you know how much I love every single nook and cranny of my home state - ? It's the same thing you're talking about - when you are born there, you are always connected to that place, even if you're not there physically. California will always be your spiritual home, just as the flat lowlands of eastern NC will always be mine...
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