All Family really is...

Visited the farm where I used to work over the weekend. Went out Thursday-early Sunday a.m. and was devastated (as always) that I had to leave. Thursday was lovely. Airports are the most exciting places in the world, well, that is after foreign countries on my top three list...

1. Foreign countries

2. Airports

3. Naughty novelty shops

Anyway, there is nothing so wonderful as flying...when you are looking forward to the destination, as I was Thursday morning. This inspired me to think (and find) great words of wisdom about flight:

"Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives."~Socrates

"The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods. More than any other thing that pertains to the body it partakes of the nature of the divine." ~Plato, 'Phaedrus'

"The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? —it is the same the angels breathe." ~Mark Twain, ‘Roughing It,’ Chapter 22, 1886.

"A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the study of so vast a subject. A time will come when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them."~Seneca

I had only slept for an hour that morning, since I always get so excited right before I head home to the farm. So, that coupled with the sinus medicine (since I was getting over being sick), knocked me out and it was no time that one leg of the flight was done. I wound up in Chicago (bumped from my original flight to D.C.). From here I caught a plane to Hartford Bradley Intl., and in what seemed like minutes, had landed, and was being greeted by Mummy Dearest, Big Bro, Lil Sis, and Amos. It was wonderful when Big Bro, now 2 1/2yrs. came up and said, "Hi, Manda." I am not sure what Mummy Dearest is feeding these kids, but they are growing like weeds. Must be all that farm fresh air.

Being back at the farm is always like coming home. I was wrapped in a happiness that I know in few other places. Seeing old friends, enjoying farm cooking, and watching life move by at a slower pace.

Amos and I watched the chitlins, Big Bro and Lil Sis Thursday night so Mummy Dearest and Hubby could have a night out. A few of our friends congregated there and we talked and laughed while watching a movie...I was home.

"You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone....You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place." ~Andrew Largeman in Garden State