Saying goodbye has never been one of my specialties. I generally avoid it like tiny, harmless spiders and if faced with it, run away faster than I do from my next karaoke performance…with humanity in mind, of course. Short term residency makes this kind of detachment a slight bit easier than saying goodbye to Jackson, Wyo. It’s been my home for more than five years. I’ve made some of the best friends of my life here--watched them come, and go, and come back again, and go again. This place, and a lot of the people in it, have a natural magnet for human beauty that support the nomad, adopt the dweller and enjoy the ephemeral. Although I am one of those people that supports, adopts and enjoys, I also passed the threshold of letting it go with emotional ease. With only four days left before I depart on my Southeast Asia journey, my heart keeps getting waves of warmth full of beautiful sentiment & nostalgic memories, followed by uncontrollable sappy tears that have yet to reach their full potential.
However, the resolve of all this is appreciation and love--for a place, it's people and an irreplaceable and life-changing experience I've had. A new, refreshing friend wrote me a poem (dare I say, lyric?) the other day that’s fitting for my current life status in so many ways. It reminds me who I have been here, and how I have lived and interacted with the people I have met. We embrace the moment so, dare I say, epically. We showcase ourselves with such genuine ease and explosion. Our intake and release of experience proves unique and wonderful time and time again. We make memories that change us so subtly, but so powerfully that the the thought of forgetting them, let alone leaving a place where they happen so frequently is incredibly heart tweaking. Now, for the little ditty that describes so many of us Jackson folk:
Impressive little ember and your bright sharp stealthy sparks
You strive to be the ender in wars of witty remarks
A memory is a moment whose secrets have been revealed
Then it fades slowly, and the truth of it again…concealed
However, the resolve of all this is appreciation and love--for a place, it's people and an irreplaceable and life-changing experience I've had. A new, refreshing friend wrote me a poem (dare I say, lyric?) the other day that’s fitting for my current life status in so many ways. It reminds me who I have been here, and how I have lived and interacted with the people I have met. We embrace the moment so, dare I say, epically. We showcase ourselves with such genuine ease and explosion. Our intake and release of experience proves unique and wonderful time and time again. We make memories that change us so subtly, but so powerfully that the the thought of forgetting them, let alone leaving a place where they happen so frequently is incredibly heart tweaking. Now, for the little ditty that describes so many of us Jackson folk:
Impressive little ember and your bright sharp stealthy sparks
You strive to be the ender in wars of witty remarks
A memory is a moment whose secrets have been revealed
Then it fades slowly, and the truth of it again…concealed