Coming Home

I wrote this Sunday evening, the first day of our travel homeward, on the back of a Trader Joe's paper bag... because, as it turned out, I had completely forgotten to pack any journals or writing paper of any kind for myself. Silly me.



The sun is setting, and we are driving west.

Low-lying clouds are illuminated from behind, sharply outlined in purple with gold shining through and pink-y blue streaking in wisps across the sky.

We are in Utah, in a place where flat scrubby desert is rimmed by striped canyons and rusty red hills. In the light of the setting sun, the land is dappled with gold and shadowy blue. The canyons are plunged into a deep velvety purple, and I think that if I could reach out and touch them they would feel like that, like velvet, soft and dark. But this is a big land and I can touch them no easier than I can reach the huge sky.

Suddenly, the sun drops below the clouds, bursting forth in golden glory, its last fling before it sinks behind the hills. And just like that, there is color. Color everywhere. Reds and browns and golds and greens and purples and pinks and blues, in stripes and splashes all across the landscape. It is glorious. I drink it in from my front seat in the van, my husband beside me and my girls behind me as we speed onward down the long, sometimes lonely, road. Our loved ones are behind us, many wonderful memories made, and our little house and yet more loved ones wait to greet us when we return. Here in this place between loved ones and home, the land and the sky, my thoughts are peaceful and content, my heart thankful for all these blessings. Thankful for this myriad of wonderful things, and this beauty that is spread out around me, like a tapestry that could only be woven by God.

And then, just as suddenly, the sun is only a blaze of burnished orange light at the horizon, sending forth its last golden rays, and it is dusk. The land is blanketed once again with the deep purple of the velvet shadows as the sky holds onto its final rosy streaks.

We drive, through the velvet, winding our way into the canyons, disappearing from this vast place along with the sun...

It's good to be going home.




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we are home now, of course, having arrived yesterday about 4:30 in the afternoon after several long days of driving. It's lovely to be at home, although we do miss our dear ones in Colorado very much already.

And now that we are home there is much to be done, including laundry, unpacking, preparing for school, catching up with all of you, and writing several blog posts, of course. I can't wait to share some pictures with you all! It was truly a wonderful time. I shall be back again soon.

hello, home, sweet home of mine