My Place
"You can fall in love at first sight with a place as with a person. " ~Alec Waugh
We have a place in our neighborhood where we love to go. It is a little barbecue restaurant, one of a kind, not part of a chain of restaurants. The food is good, the people are great, the atmosphere is wonderful, the drinks are cold and the manager has become a friend of ours. We go there once a week, sometimes more often if life gets hectic. This is where we celebrate birthdays. It is over these tables that we talk about the important stuff in our world. This is the restaurant who catered Vic's promotion. This is the place where we take all our friends and family. This is our place.
We have our places all over the world. There is a BBQ place in Alabama that we love. There is an Italian place in Fort Lee, VA and one in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas that we love. In Korea there is the store where we would go outside the gates of our living community and buy the best frozen pear popsicles and strawberries. There is also the Bulgogi restaurant where you sit on the floor and grill your own food. There is the flower shop with the amazing owner, Grace. In Germany the places are too numerous to mention. The coffee shop, the bakery, the bowling alley, the Gyro stand, Eddies Place, all places where we could come in from the cold and get a warm cup of coffee and an even warmer greeting from the owner.
These exchanges with people are so vital to who we are. There are days when the world can rattle our very existence. Days when the activity of it all makes you forget that you are a person. These are the days when you need your places. Every duty station we have lived in, my places have pulled me through the tough times. If I felt down or overwhelmed, I'd go to my places and regroup. Inevitably, someone would smile at me, pat me on the shoulder or give me a hug in my place and I'd be restored. My places are like charging stations.
These places are what makes the leaving so tough when it comes time to move. It is heart wrenching to walk into a place for the last time and to shake the hand of those who have been with you on your journey. These are the places where you leave a little part of yourself when you go. These places are what makes the memories so special. Everyone in my family remembers our places. Without warning a story will come up of those times in these places and a fantastic memory will be relived in our hearts.
It is all a part of making a new community home. Sooner or later you find your place, where you fit in and where you feel good and you make it your own. You make your memories there and you make your friends there. It's a beautiful thing.
We have a place in our neighborhood where we love to go. It is a little barbecue restaurant, one of a kind, not part of a chain of restaurants. The food is good, the people are great, the atmosphere is wonderful, the drinks are cold and the manager has become a friend of ours. We go there once a week, sometimes more often if life gets hectic. This is where we celebrate birthdays. It is over these tables that we talk about the important stuff in our world. This is the restaurant who catered Vic's promotion. This is the place where we take all our friends and family. This is our place.
We have our places all over the world. There is a BBQ place in Alabama that we love. There is an Italian place in Fort Lee, VA and one in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas that we love. In Korea there is the store where we would go outside the gates of our living community and buy the best frozen pear popsicles and strawberries. There is also the Bulgogi restaurant where you sit on the floor and grill your own food. There is the flower shop with the amazing owner, Grace. In Germany the places are too numerous to mention. The coffee shop, the bakery, the bowling alley, the Gyro stand, Eddies Place, all places where we could come in from the cold and get a warm cup of coffee and an even warmer greeting from the owner.
These exchanges with people are so vital to who we are. There are days when the world can rattle our very existence. Days when the activity of it all makes you forget that you are a person. These are the days when you need your places. Every duty station we have lived in, my places have pulled me through the tough times. If I felt down or overwhelmed, I'd go to my places and regroup. Inevitably, someone would smile at me, pat me on the shoulder or give me a hug in my place and I'd be restored. My places are like charging stations.
These places are what makes the leaving so tough when it comes time to move. It is heart wrenching to walk into a place for the last time and to shake the hand of those who have been with you on your journey. These are the places where you leave a little part of yourself when you go. These places are what makes the memories so special. Everyone in my family remembers our places. Without warning a story will come up of those times in these places and a fantastic memory will be relived in our hearts.
It is all a part of making a new community home. Sooner or later you find your place, where you fit in and where you feel good and you make it your own. You make your memories there and you make your friends there. It's a beautiful thing.
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