Nostalgia

A recent trip back to Atlanta. A city that doesn't bode well for a quiet life, with the last two trips interrupted with both my wife starting labor and the release of Grace from the hospital. So, with a little trepidation I returned to the peach state and a new experience. (I'm happy to say that nothing out of the ordinary occurred !)
On our return to the airport, I sat in a stuffy, hot rail car of the MARTA. My companion's voice was drowned out as I absorbed the sounds of travel; digital cell rings, random conversations, the raspy voice calling out the next station. And I found myself rhythmically following the motion of the world past my window. And a new feeling rose in my chest. A pang of the past...Nostalgia.
The feelings, impressions and images of distant trips across the German landscape emerge. I remember the crowded cars, sunsets over fields of emerging asparagus and strawberries, talking to strangers - face after face of the world's variety, the giggling girls (heck we were cute 19 year olds), and so on. But along with the sights and sounds come the intangibles. Insecurities, discovering myself, emerging confidence, home sickness, beginning and ending new chapters in my life, basically discovering life.
I remember the hard cobblestone on my tired feet, smells of mopeds intermingled with summer, and looking at new world ahead of me. Who would I marry, how would next month go, what about school, children, retirement, etc? And although many of these decisions are come and gone the feelings haunt me - the feelings of the unknown, the hope, the insecurities...anticipation of life.
But if there is one thing I learned on those train trips all over Germany - even hot, stuffy ones filled with cell phone rings - was to not just anticipate life, but live it. And as I come home from Atlanta...I spent a beautiful weekend with my family...warm May sun, giggly girls running the yard - up and back, smells of hickory BBQ, sweet-salty-hot tang of chicken wings, and the kiss of my beautiful wife.
Maybe, unlike the Deutsche Bahn - or the one track MARTA, I don't know all the destinations of my trip...but it's the views and people along the way. They sit down and get up, come and go, cry, laugh, sleep...but lucky for me I have three semi-permanent travel companions...so who cares about the intermediate stops - it's only the final one that counts.
HRP