A Journey Home
ONE
Can I return home? Can I revisit my youth - trace once more the years of wonder? I ask myself.
What if I could return, go back - as the man I am today - and treat once more the beach town streets of my boyhood town?
The body can’t do it - but mind and soul still can, reaching back to endless days of youth, spent in innocent Picton town.
One of eight - the third in line - returning not to stay, for memory is a pathway, not a dwelling.
I’ve found that age counts only bone and flesh, not the inner reach of mind, nor wisdom’s depth.
Youth was simple - before adulthood arrived; before thoughts turned inward, before I constructed a self from borrowed words and internal dialogue.
TWO
Learning is to know myself. I’ve discovered that the key is not to return to the familiar, though it lingers in long shadows past.
Too much looking back is a snare for the soul - a trap.
Yet - how often may I slip behind timeless tales, behind simple fun and games? I ask myself again:
Can I return to youth - before adulthood weighed in, before years blurred into routine, before life’s endless comings and goings crowded out my inner boyhood dream?
It’s taken years - of reading, of questions, of listening - to learn that home is not a building, not a physical place, but the identification of Self:
A state of being at peace with body, soul, and spirit - made whole.
THREE
Life is a journey of discovery - unearthing the hidden wisdom held in the secret crevices of my forgiving self.
I see now - as an older soul - there’s nothing better than a shared meal, savouring a drink, and finding joy in honest work - not in the pursuit of perfection.
For these, too, are gifts from Creator God.
So keep the heart brimming with Life - too full to be stuck in the past.
This is home.
Thus speaks this humble soul - Autumn 2025.
Inspiration: Christian Writers Hutt Valley & Beyond - Theme for the New Year: “Home is..
kiwi poet, 5th March 2025