One door closes.
Another door opens.
I remember pondering during the E2 "summer vacation." I pondered what brings us here and what keeps us coming back. I suppose one could wander off in another direction and stumble upon a greener field. One could send out their minions to seek a new castle to call home. Does it really matter why you are here? Does it matter that you aren't over there?
It is the nature of humans to wander and explore the pathways of life until they find a place they want to call home. Any new patch of land can be exciting, but often the oasis is a mirage. You pontificate upon your dreams and the crops you wish to plant of this oasis, but when it dries up and goes dead, you either move alone or fight with the sand.
The real test is when your oasis, this place you call home, goes away. Consider the couple that goes to the same beach and stays in the same hotel every year. One year they discover that their hotel is undergoing renovations and is closed for the summer. They try another hotel in the area.
When they return to the beach the following summer, they may go back to their old favorite hotel. They may at least check out the changes made during the previous year's remodeling. They may go back to the old hotel or they may decide the new hotel was more to their liking. They may have been so disappointed by the alternative hotel that they vow to never go anywhere other than the first hotel. They may realize the new hotel offers more that they enjoy. They may decide to check out all the area hotels and stop being such boring single-minded weirdos that go to the same hotel every year. The way things turn is the way of the road. This is life.
Real faith comes from knowing no matter how far you roam, you will always come home because home will always be there. This can be a rock or it can be an anchor. If you are too afraid to lose something, it will weigh you down like an anchor. If you truly believe in something it will be your rock, that which you can depend on throughout all life's misadventures.
E2 is a rock for some and an anchor for others, just as people, places and things can be throughout our lives. We may fall in love and find later that it was just a passing fancy. You may truly love and find that no matter where you go or what you do, that love stays with you. With people this is easier to connect with, but with places and things it has meaning as well. E2 has been a rock for me, even as I spent the last month and a half considering how much "more" I could do without pouring my time and energy into this place on a regular basis.
You must wander and you must explore. If you set your tent down in the first open field and cement the tent pegs to the ground you may have security but you'll never know what's over the next rise. People, places and things change over time. E2 isn't the same now as it was three years ago. If you set your tent pegs with cement and expect your clearing to always stay the same, you've forgotten too many things. The weather always changes and sometimes they pave paradise and put up a parking lot.
The E2 summer vacation was a great time to evaluate focus and purpose. For those who came back and were eager to find this place back in action, welcome back. For those that found a new oasis and are enjoying a frozen margarita and some steak sticks at the bar on the other side of the last hill to the left, enjoy.
Those that pass through leave their mark
Those no longer here created their own memories
Those that stay want to till the land
There shall be crops in abundance
We are homesteaders and traveling bluesmen
We leave our mark
We were here
This is real life.
This is text.