Hard Soft Landing

Returning to where you began is rarely easy. You want it to be comfortingly the same, yet excitingly better. You want the feeling of being away to continue and the feeling of being connected to reappear. And there is no way that any place, even if you left it in pristine condition (which we never manage to do), can live up to all of that.

So we return, to real life from vacation. We return, from walks on the beach to homework and laundry. We return, from days that spread in front of us to days that fly by while we are just trying to keep up.

It's no accident that the going goes along with a plane taking off. Even if the airport is tricky and the seats aren't comfortable, there is a feeling of climbing up to something unknown, of reaching for something beyond our everyday. While the return may include a takeoff, it is the landing that really means something--the return from flying, the process of putting our feet back on the ground, and walking the walk that our everyday life requires.

It was a twisty, turny flight, with a hard soft landing. It is, perhaps, never easy to return to reality, even when that reality is actually pretty darn okay. But in order to take off, we must be willing to land. And when we land, the best we can do is just keep walking...