Coming home

As written on August 8, 2011.

With a birthday looming just a few days away I sit and stare blankly at the North Florida forest.  I sit totally removed from my magical summer.  1100 miles away from the city in which I embraced the change I had been fighting for years but was finally experiencing.  I am finally at home.  At home in my own skin; at home with my own thoughts; at home with the person I truly am.  

I am quite conservative, in my own way, yet quite liberal in the eyes of others.  And being totally removed from the hustle of D.C. and the enlightened people, I have experienced a head on collusion of who I am and why I struggled so much with myself in the past years, and why all this came to head in the lonely rooms of a row house near Rhode Island and 4^th in the less than posh NE section of the District.

When thrown back into a world of people who prefer Wal-Mart over a local co-op, people who rarely read a label on products they purchase, people who don’t question where their food comes from, people whom can update you on Jesse James’ love life.  People whom I remembered and thought often about while drunk in my row house on 6^th.  See you can’t have a conversation with these people about the difficulties of a vegan diet.  Hell, for the most part these people have no clue what vegan really means.  You can’t attack these people for hunting and fishing, or being completely blind to the millions of lives it takes to feed them and their families every year.  These people won’t respond well to the discussions that occur in dog parks and at happy hour in D.C.  

So therein lies my strife.  Therein, I find my spot in this world, in this movement as not a stranger in a strangeland but a bridge.  A person whom lives and understands these people.  A voice in a movement which most people are unaware of.  I stand in no place to judge anyone.  I stand in no place to think I am better than anyone, for I came from this population but I can be a logical voice of reason.  I can have a discourse and not sound like a pompous asshole, for I was just as critical as most and the only reason I became part of this movement was the fact that I questioned.  That I wanted to know more.  

 I know the picture is cheesy but a double rainbow plunging into the vivid green trees on a perfect Sunday afternoon was one of my favorite experiences while I visited Robin in Florida.

Cheers to an enlightening summer!  Cheers to finding yourself!  Cheers to being at home in your own skin!