oh california.

i remember driving with the windows open, the spring of 99, on the freeway between rochester and lake ontario.  joni mitchell filling the speakers and the wind in my hair with tales of a land west and sunny, warm and nostalgic.

it has been longer, harder, and so much sweeter than i imagined... these 9 years in the land of constant weather and vegetables.  how do you thank the earth, the sun?  i have what i need now.  it's not perfection.  it's not the dream i dreamt way back then.  but the map exists now, even if i can't always see the road.  it's a knowing, of the true and essential thing.  that everything will be ok now.

i'm flying east again.