Have you ever been somewhere in your childhood, and then… as an adult… return to that “place”?

Like a home where you lived as a kid?  Or an amusement park?  A baseball field? Or some such deal?  It seems like nine times out of ten, it is much smaller, or darker, or WAY less grand, than when you were a kid.

Well.  This changes when you get older.  I think.  We went back to Charleston, SC.  It was our home away from home for a while.  I anticipated that it would feel very different.  I guessed it would be less magical, not nearly as splendid, or a bit lack-luster.

I was wrong. It was every bit as majestic as I remembered.  Truly, a great city.  Culture, people, charm, food, food, food.   Did I mention the food?

I had missed a lot about Charleston though.  A lot.

But there were little things that made me happiest.  These photos are some of them.  Everywhere I looked, were tiny trinkets… just asking for it.

Asking for what?  Well.  That’s between each individual, and every little sparkly spark in time… which you might deem a  trinket.

It is really the same during the every day, everywhere …. … I guess.

It is taking notice, is what I suspect.  Waking up enough in the “everyday” to actually take the time to look.  To see.  To hear.  To feel.

So much of our time, we spend wishing it was another time, or another place.  “I can’t wait until I get out of work.”  “Oh, when will this meeting ever be over?”  “I hate sitting in this traffic.”  And on, and on.

Maybe it is better when we shake those thoughts out of our minds, and appreciate each heartbeat, each breath, and each glimpse.   We can notice the little gifts that way.  We can see those trinkets… no matter where we are.

Like tonight.  When we returned back to our Home in Ohio.

And in that way, every moment might be just as grand as the next.

If you go anywhere, even paradise, you will miss your home.
— Malala Yousafzai

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
— Joseph Campbell