You Can Come Home

It is said that" you can't go home", meaning that when you do go home, things will be different and it won't seem like home. As the mom of all grown up children, I want to say "you can come home, PLEASE." No, things will not be the same as when you grew up. The house will be older. The grass will not seem as green. The trees may not even seem as large. The garden where you worked hours on end may have shrunk to postage stamp size. All of the many interesting places you used to play will now seem silly or dangerous, or at best boring. Your favorite foods may not taste as good. You've had better chicken soup at the grocery store. The bisquits are better at KFC. Old man Jacobs, down the street is dead now, and your best friend across town has become an accountant with no sense of humor. The corner grocery has been replaced by a Super Selllmart, and they sure won't let you get your own dill pickle out of the wooden barrel in the meat cooler with a pair of tongs. You will not be a child anymore, you may even have to follow around a little cherub of your own. You won't feel the same carefree self you used to be.

But from the inside out, you will be the finest sight in the world. You will be more beautiful, or handsome, and smarter than you have ever been. Your spouse will be the nicest person ever, and your children will be the cutest little creatures that ever lived. And even though YOU get tired and bored and annoyed with your parents for being so old fashioned and slow, YOUR PARENT will wish you had more time to spend with them. So ok, home will now be where you live with your little family. But, to the folks who gave you your beginnings, you will always be the son, or daughter that grew up in the old house, with the run down yard, and the dangerous play places. You will always be the laughter and the tears that filled the kitchen where grandma's chicken soup was made, and the owner of the "ouwies" and the" triumphs" that demanded every waking hour of attention of that mom and dad who love you so much. So do come home, please, over and over again. No, things will not be the same. But as you share your childhood memories with you own little family, things might be as comfy as an old quilt.