\u201cOnce more\u201d is what my father used to say when pulling up at the front door with some of all of his family inside. He would stop the car, turn off the key, and I would always wait a moment for him to say it. Then we would all climb out and head inside, once more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just got home (to Craig) from two months in a faraway part of Alaska. It was 75 degrees and bright sun there, and it\u2019s fifty and raining here, but I\u2019m ok with that. This is where I live. My mom and I, we both love the rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My cat waited for me, too, as a bonus. Her age is such that as I was leaving two months ago, I felt obliged to make a special request: please be here when I get home. She has been kind enough to oblige me, and even though I\u2019ve been home two whole days she shows no sign of peeling off the planet. In fact, as soon as I sat down, she crawled right up on my shoulder, with a minimum of the wandering around and squalling that so endears her to the family. Other than the occasional field trip to drink rainwater on the front porch, she prefers to gain her warmth from a living human (I flatter myself that she \u201cloves\u201d me), and only moves off when said human gets too ambitious in getting the rats\u2019 nests out of her fur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHome\u201d is such a weird word. In Aniak, I would leave the school and go \u201chome\u201d to my rented apartment. When leaving Aniak, I mentioned that I was going \u201chome\u201d to Craig. When I leave Craig to visit family in Virginia, I explain that I am going \u201chome\u201d for a few weeks. I suppose it is a term that exists only in a relative sense. If it were more concrete and absolute, we would probably have fewer poems and country songs on the topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One person who never seemed confused about the concept was my mother. Once she settled into the farm in Virginia, having spent her childhood moving around for her father\u2019s job changes, she was apparently satisfied. She was fond of saying that she would go anywhere in the world, provided she could be home in time for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as for me, I like the idea that no matter where I am, I can always go home, at least once more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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