Moon Gazing

I used to think homesick was a feeling 

reserved for rainy days at summer camp, 

or long lonely weekends in a zip code still new to me.

But here I am, happier than a clam and feeling quite content

and that old distant feeling has snuck right up on me, 

like a mosquito to my neck. 

I suppose you can feel homesick when things go right too.

I'll be walking along, minding my thoughts 

and I'll see something completely ordinary to others,

but to me its anything but. 

A speckled feather on a path, a magnolia in bloom, 

a smoothed over river stone. 

I'll cross the street 

and my eye will catch a cat sunning itself in a window, 

or a ginkgo leaf laying in the shadows on the sidewalk.

image is my own

An op-ed in the paper, a funny spoof on tv, a sketch on a postcard or a chuckle at work.

And every so often, on a rare clear night,

 I'll look up to a full, plump moon.

Lately all of these simple

 daily discoveries make me miss my family. 

I feel settled and happy and excited and inspired,

and suddenly it seems a little strange to feel these things 

without my family close by to share it all with me.

This feeling will pass. 

But until then, 

I'll keep staring up, 

at that big old moon,

in that big old sky,

and think of you. 

xo