HOME AGAIN

Finally I've just arrived home. The long trek to Chicago and back is over. I pulled into Boston on the train at 10:00 pm last night and Mary Beth (MB) was there to meet me. My Maine traveling mates continued on back to Portland but MB and I stayed at her brother's home in Boston last night so that we could attend the funeral for her dear Aunt Ruth who passed away just days ago.

MB has a huge Irish Catholic family in the Boston area and Ruth was always more than welcoming to me when I attended weddings, funerals, and the holiday parties that drew the loud and joyous family together. The service in the church today was especially meaningful for me as my own mother, also named Ruth, died just months ago in Las Vegas and due to the fact that my family is largely broken and dysfunctional, my mom preferred not to have any formal services and instead was cremated in what was a sad and lonely end to her life.

We took a bus today from Boston all the way home to Bath. It feels good to find ways to travel these days by bus and train - token gestures to help deal with rapidly escalating climate change whose impacts are being seen worldwide by those with open eyes and open hearts. Those of us with children of our own, who believe in preserving life on our Mother Earth so our kids can actually have a future, must do these things to change the way we travel and live. We are trying our best to step outside that constricting box that keeps us locked in the status quo.

Once home the first thing I wanted to do, after petting our dogs Red and Seamus, was to go out and see the progress of our garden. The tomato plants are getting so tall and wild and baby tomatoes are popping to life - late in most places but this is Maine where gardening doesn't get going until the end of April. The peas are now in full production, the pole beans and lettuce are yielding abundantly, the basil ready to swim in my next pasta sauce, and the beet greens and kale more than ready for eating. The squash plants are taking over their allotted areas in the garden and I can't wait to be out there in the morning pulling weeds and thinning where needed.

What I need most now is a week at a beach, walking over some hills and through the woods, reading while lounging on a comfortable porch chair and falling asleep as the book falls into my lap. But this will not yet be possible as the Space Alert! newsletter beckons me and a week's worth of mail waits to be opened and dealt with. I still must write a trip report as well.

I don't want to sound like I am complaining. I know I am very lucky that I get to travel and attend events and speak to groups. But I also am a home body - I love to be home to cook and help clean the house and to do the mundane things that make life what it is. After many years of hectic travel it always feels good to say - I am home again.