Home is not here anymore...

After waking up from what feels like a nap that is making up for the past 8 weeks, I am ready to go home. Home as in Kimbark Street where things are quiet, the apartment is small and the local produce store is just 2 blocks away. The humidity exists only in my mind there and the breeze is always a guarantee. Cable doesn't exist in my apartment, but the NES is always on and ready to play. There's no stereo system but the record player always had a new needle in it to listen to the likes of John Denver, Jim Croce, Peter, Paul and Mary, and the man who wrote "Peace Train," Yusuf Islam, or as many of you know him, Cat Stevens.

Yes, I'm ready to go home. Ready to go back to my life of books, really strong coffee, community meals, Chicago Public Transit, Lake Michigan,even snow; and ready to go back to being myself.

Now, that's not to say that I'm not myself when I'm in Atlanta. I mean, Atlanta and I have a very special bond with each other. I've lived in Atlanta my entire life, up until I moved to Chicago. Atlanta has my favorite food (they even have a Jimmy John's here now!), the churches that support me, my best friends and the places that hold memories for me like in Carrollton at the coffee shop I used to work at. But I am ready to go back to being who I am now, not who I was. As much as I love Atlanta, I'm not the same person here I used to be, and that's a problem. I'm adapted to Chicago now, I've begun to make my life there, and I like that. I like being there because I have nothing to hide. I am exactly who I want to be; the person I've been trying to be my entire life. Maybe seminary got me there, I don't know. I think Deb Mullen had something to do with that...

The summer was wonderful, please don't think it wasn't. I experienced new people, new places within Atlanta, and learned that I could do more than I ever thought I could. I consider the summer a success. I didn't always mesh with the people I worked with but I learned a lot and made it through. Here's to another summer...

When I'm in Chicago I'm with people that know me for me. They know the hard things I don't want people to know, they know the things that I want people to know that most don't ever get to see, they walk my dogs and drop in for visits and some Mario; I not only am ready to go back to Chicago, I'm ready to go home to the people.