Taking Gulps

I saw a picture this morning that took me back to my childhood faster than any train of thought in recent memory. It was an image of a 2 year-old girl standing pigtailed in a yard, leaning over to drink water spilling straight from a garden hose being held in front of her. Instantly I found myself on the five-acre Idaho farm where I grew up, obeying my mothers orders to water any or all of the cows, goats, trees or flower beds that gave life to our country acreage. Invariably, any task that involved using the garden hose at full speed also involved the excellent challenge of trying to get down a few gulps of water from the bubbling hose without filling your nose with water or spilling it all down the front of your shirt. This one, simple memory takes me far back into the simplicity of a life lived growing up in Idaho - full of wonder about the world outside the boundaries of our "Potato State" that was/is so often confused with the likes Iowa and Ohio.

As I write this, I am 5 weeks away from leaving my life as a Californian and returning to my roots, albeit in a slightly more urban setting, in Idaho. Off the beaten path? yes. Vastly different from the Bay Area? yes. Full of adventure and uncertainty? yes. I am eagerly awaiting my return to a place I know now only from the perspective of myself as a young person. Though Idaho will certainly be different, these 8 years later, I cannot wait to make new memories there and recall exactly how it was that I began the journey of "me"...and I will begin all over again, starting with one good long, cool gulp of water from a garden hose.