Where do I begin? I grew up here and then I left it behind me. I probably believed at the time that I was better off, as I started a new chapter in a new place.
At the age of about 13 years old, my family moved to Abilene Kansas.
Life would take me further away and it’d be 22 years before I returned home… HOME.
I can’t even describe to you what it felt like, as we approached the Northern Border from Colorado. My wife, son and I, took a road trip in October of 2018, so I could show her the fall skies as they filled with hundreds of hot air balloons, during Albuquerque’s famous International Balloon Fiesta.
I was convinced it would become as fond a memory for them, as it has been for me.
At this point, it didn’t feel real. I couldn’t and wouldn’t believe it, until we had physically crossed over an imaginary line that defined the difference between Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico.
Boy, it hit though and I’m not ashamed to admit I cried. Years of yearning for the journey that would take me back to my childhood roots and here I was. Closer to the mountains that were once my backyard. The peaks and crests I took for granted.
Back near the 3 sisters that sit on the west side of Albuquerque. The volcanoes that greeted me as a child. The familiarity of the desert and all its faces, waiting with an embrace to welcome me back… home.
Haiku of the Dragon 