Life Down Under

Home.

I'm home. And I love it. Granted, I've only been here a couple of hours, but it already feels good to be back. A whirlwind of emotions, to be sure. I think the question on the table is, "Will being here satisfy my longing to be home, or only make the longing deeper?" I think the answer is yes. A strange paradox, to be sure. The challenge for me will be embracing the reality of both, and not holding back because of it.

I can already tell that the second reality which must be realized: the life I left is not the life that exists here now. Meaning this: The 7 years we lived here were no doubt the best years of my life. Spreading my wings for the first time as a young 19 yr. old, falling in love, getting married, buying our first house, forming and deepening lifelong friendships, Taylor's birth, Graeme and Sabrina living right up the road, drinking daily from the well at IHOP, and the list goes on. But time moves on, and that which was before is no longer. And I can never go back to that life. Even if we had stayed here, our life would look different now than it did back then. Perhaps not all would be different, but the painful reality of life is that nothing ever stays the same.

So where does that leave me? With the gift of being able to come back here and enjoy. To enjoy friends, family, and the multitude of things I've missed about this place I love. Yes, there is a mourning that is real, too; but my prayer and desire is that the joy of coming home would far outweigh the pain of missing it.