Southeast Alaska:

I returned to you; like I said I would.  That promise, made back on the rocks of Sandy Beach, on Heceta Island, when crying the day before we left you, 12 years old, I said good bye.  Years ago, I brought my son to feel your healing powers and you did not fail in your nurturing.  You’ve made him strong.  You gave me hope to be strong myself.

I headed north, into the interior, into a cold and unrelenting land, never thinking I would return.  Years folded into years, I traveled like one dazed, in and out of southern states, to find myself lost and penniless again.

Without thinking, I returned to search for you and saw an opportunity.  Sold what I could, drove thousands of miles across the entire country now, like the migrating geese, flying north.  And now, the rain falls steady.  A river next to my home roars with the waters, and once again I am home.