My Backyard

Today I stood in my backyard in Weilerbach Germany, looking out over the ducks in the pond.  The air was warm with a cool breeze,  The sun gently touching the back of my shoulders,  The grass was green and moist like a spring morning but the trees were still bare as in the dead of winter. 

I, like my Weenie dog Cecily, love my backyard.  It is spacious enough to throw a Frisbee, but not so large as to be overwhelming, it has a beautiful little cottage near the back, where I often sit to contemplate whatever is on my mind.  That cottage porch has felt more like a home to me than my apartment ever has.

As I stood looking over the pond I am faced with a terrible truth, less than a month from now I will gaze upon that pond for the last time.  My things will be gone, my apartment once so full of gadgets and friends and good memories will have empty floors and echos.  My life will change again, and it will never be the same.  I do welcome change, but I cannot say that this time will be less difficult than the last.

Leaving home the first time.
The night I left the home of my parents in Orange Park Florida, some of my friends came over to see me off.  I had great friends and I was sad to leave them and my wonderful family, but only one thing hurt me.  It was the voice of my niece, whom I believe was no more than two years at the time.  "Where is uncle Reed going?", my heart sank.  She had never asked that before.  Just two years old and she knew something was changing forever.  She didn't know where or why, but she knew I was going away.  The look of concern on her face is imprinted in my mind better than any picture I have ever seen, and it is the primary image that haunts me whenever I question if I made the right choice.

The following posts are a small summation of my early adult life.