Hometown Memories

Hometown memories of childhood actually have two locations in my mind, the first being in New Jersey when born and living there until I was eleven years old. Relatives, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, all so very close and loving, roots of my life like a fabric woven from all their love, then being torn from all I'd ever known. Still being eleven years old, yet traveling to Arizona where we knew no one at all, an empty desert, void of love and caring that I had grown up with and loved having. Strangers everywhere I went, timid, shy, curious sad, wanting to explore every corner of the desert for I found it's arid and hot atmosphere accommodating my lonely soul from the inside out. Walking everyday in it's peace to get away from strangers and the unfamiliar city of Phoenix, preferring to be out- doors with nature, because nature I knew was safe. It gave me the strength to get through each day with it's quiet faith, giving me hope that I'd be able to get through this excruciating experience in life somehow. Gaining my freedom through it's miracle of serenity, as it fully enveloped me in it's presence, becoming once again one with nature and myself.