They say, "Home is where the heart is". This year the geography of home expanded. I now formally have one foot in Walnut Creek and the other in Mendocino. This poem was juried into the Writers of the Mendocino Coast 2019 Anthology and will be published next spring.
PATH TO THE SEA ~Linda Cloonan
I was born at the waters edge.
Nursed by the sun and cradled by the sand. Day blended gracefully into night And rose gently back again to dawn.
Time was marked by the rhythm of the tide. The changing of the seasons. The quadrants of the moon.
Life took me far away from that shore.
Leading me deep into a forest of asphalt;
A jungle of cement, traffic lights and noise.
But one can never truly forget The voice of home that whispers To the quiet spaces of the heart.
It calls to the soul until it is heard. Perhaps quietly at first but as time passes, The urgency and volume increases.
As it did with me, until I surrendered
And returned back to my southern coast’s
Northern sister.
Where white caps break off the shoreline Of Rugged majestic cliffs and afternoon fog Rolls in to blanket you in a cozy embrace.
As if to extend, with open arms, a Warm welcome back to those Who have made their way home.
I have decaled the following words on the stairs leading up to my new apartment on the Jewel of The North Coast as a daily note-to-self of the simple mechanics of creation:
Every—Journey—Begins—With—Just—A—Single—Step------DREAM BIG
As this year ends and we enter a brand new year, I invite you to consider your dreams and those things you wish to create. Write them down, and tuck that piece of paper away. The day will come when you come across it again, open it up and glance around your life, only to realize that your words mattered…and that the Universe was listening.
Wishing you EVERY good thing in the New Year. Linda