2001-02-21 - 15:18:41
Landsense

The power of memory ...

Every time I walk around this campus, some fragment of past slaps me in the face. Sights, sounds, weather, and especially scents combine to evoke a scene in my mind.

Happy, sad, thoughtful, stressed, worried, hurt, grieving, joyful, excited, panicked, amused, loving, hating, a kaliedescope of emotions. I have never invested so much of myself in any other place, except my parents' home here in Oregon.

Some time in the next year, I'll have to leave here. The salary is just a wee too tight for the amount of bills I've got. What will I do then? I'm comfortable here. I have roots here!

I'm reading a Lisa Scottoline book right now. It's called Moment of Truth, and in one of the early chapters, character Mary DiNunzio mentions something called "landsense". The land you make your own, often the land you grow up on, is like nowhere else on earth. No matter your feelings towards the place itself, there's something in you that only comes alive when you're on your land.

So what will I do when I move?

*sigh*