JOURNEY HOME

photo art created for me by

The Unknown Gnome

My life was a long search for home,

an escape from the things that go 

bump in the night,

an odyssey towards peace,

autonomy and freedom,

and a nest

to keep me safe.

Nature held me by the hand,

and the blue sky pointed my compass

diligently towards hope.

The middle of the journey required trust

and a mighty leap,

from inland desert to siren shores,

like a murrelet drawn unerringly to its nest,

or a migrant whale to its feeding ground.

Then there was joy; ten years of beauty,

my soul having found its wilderness home,

a big black laughing wolf dancing by my side.

Journeys, until they end,

tend to continue,

so once again I find myself

a distance from my beloved waves,

having lost homeland and wolf companion,

spirit ever attuned to the call of the sea

beyond the mountains,

heart still tethered to a black spirit-wolf,

whose paws pad forever across my heart.

The lesson: to be happy in this unexpected place,

heart suspended, and listening,

still trusting the universal plan;

to honour the place for loss and grief

within; to carry it along, and keep on walking

towards that final destination

somewhere between earth and sky.