Where I Am From

Where I Am From

I am from generations of strong, proud people who left their homes and rowed to unfamiliar shores and ways.

I am from a small town nestled in the hills of Tennessee.  From a place called Appalachia.  A place pitied by outsiders. A place of pride for us insiders.

I am from parents who must have wondered at the imagination of their only daughter.

I am from Sunday dinners at my Grandmas where children swarmed in and out of the house like bees to a hive.

I am from Sunday night episodes of Lassie Come Home and body- jerking, uncontrollable sobs when that front paw was raised and the whimper escaped her lips.

I am from summer nights of catching lightning bugs and frogs.

Telling ghost stories and then running all the way home from imagined monsters lurking in the shadows.

I am from church services on hard wooden pews, and stern older folks who could break out in smiles as warm as the sunshine. 

Where all the adults were your “parents”

And where sitting with my cousin, Janice, caused uncontrollable laughter and pops to the sides of our legs

or worse yet-

Separation!

I am from hard working parents who gave all they had and did all they could to raise me right.

I am from crinoline slips, white anklets, and patent leather shoes.

I am from games of Red Rover, Mother May I, and jump rope rhymes:

 “3, 6, 9, the goose drank wine…”

I am from skinned knees and elbows, bruises, and broken hearts.

I am from a place where cars still pull over for funeral processions

– even on four lane roads.

I am from a place where folks wave and speak to you as you pass - know you or not.

A place where food and love are interchangeable words.

Where Mama taught me to sing, pray, and always think before I spoke.

Where Daddy who taught me to fish, shoot, respect the earth, and have a love of reading.

I am from a place where I met the love of my life, married him, and learned happily ever after is not to be taken literally

 Yet taken nonetheless.

Where the births of two remarkable sons gave me a joy I had never known before, but have known every day since.

I am from a color-laden patchwork of people, experiences, influences, and love.

Most of all love!