Longing...

Are there places in this world where you long to be? I hope so. Tonight I was looking at Flickr photos taken by others of the Great Smoky Mountains and other East Tennessee areas. I feel a distinct aching in my chest looking at this photo. It brings tears to my eyes. It's a longing for a place and its people. I feel disconnected from my history and my future. We've lived in Chicagoland now for three years and have three more to go, and I think my heart might burst from the anticipation of returning to home. My home. Our home.

I can hardly fathom that people take pictures like this on their vacations; not because it isn't beautiful but because it's like taking a picture of your underwear drawer to me. It's something you know so well that you forget to look. But you sure do notice when your underwear isn't there one morning. And I've had three years of those mornings.

Now, don't get me wrong. I see in a thousand little and big ways why God brought my husband and I here. We're growing, changing, and learning in ways that being in the shadow of home just doesn't allow. I feel uncomfortable enough in this flat midwest surrounded by buildings, concrete, affluence, and "Yankeeness" that I have actually have had to examine why I burn with a desire to live in the shadow of these mountains.

I get to visit home in two weeks, and I can't wait. It's just a long weekend, but I'm praying it will be sustenance to me in a time that feels so meager and malnourished emotionally and spiritually.