"...'mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam...be it ever so humble, there's no place like home..." I know it's trite, but...I've lived in the same town all my life (same street, actually) on the Chesapeake Bay, and I feel like every tree, rock, every crack in every sidewalk I know so well and it's part of me. I've vacationed in interesting places, but none that speaks to my soul so much as "home."

I know what you mean. Swakopmund is where Mum used to take us during school holidays - some of my nicest memories are in those German bakeries, amongst the huge sand dunes surrounding it, and on those beaches. I've been all over Europe and Enland the past few years, but neither Paris, nor London or Berlin or Amsterdam or Rome hold the same kind of charm, none of those places will ever be dear to me in the same way as that obscure, simple place in Africa. We humans are funny creatures, aren't we? We long to see the world. We find the courage to do so, we embark on the journey with great, showy eagerness, with equally grand hopes and dreams of something 'better', something more exciting, somewhere where life will have 'meaning'. And then, when you get there, when you leave an unremarkable existence behind, and become a part of the 'better' life, you realize just how precious that unremarkable place really was. It is where you come from, a part of you which can't just be cut off out of your life like that without doing somet ing to you - causing pain. But by the time you realize this it is too late, and you can't return, and you realize that you've let a good thing slip through your fingers just because you weren't willing to polish your view of it every once in a while, and find the true colours glowing right there in front of you.

Well put, Riette!

Thank God! I thought I'd completely lost the ability to make sense!

no, no, now let's not get ahead of ourselves there *i honestly tried to smile*

I wasn't talking about YOUR kind of sense! That I can make perfectly and without a problem in the world. So you can honestly stop trying to smile. So, what's your favourite place in the world, Jim? Seriously now.

I really like the place in my head that I go to think things out. The road is always rocky coming in, but once I'm there, and have had a chance to sort things out at my own pace... the road back out to reality is always sweet, but nothing feels as safe as in my head, where time and tradition and history and the future really have no direct impact on me. I can be worry free, I can be selfish and I can be giving simeltaneously because I am the only one there. Sometimes I write about that place but only to relive the memory and to remember the warm feelings. It's kind of a bright, cool space but 'cool' like shade and still warm and comforting. This truly is my favorite place. The second is embraced in a hug. A real one. A strong one. Where I feel like the protected and the protector. A hug where body warmth and electrical sensations (good vibes) are passed from one another. A mutual hug.

Sounds good, the place in your head. Especially because you don't have to cover tens of thousands of miles before you can get there. I like a big hug too. I am lucky to have a very tender, protective husband, who isn't too old or wise to seek my protection too.

I think The Spring has become my favourite place in the world...

I can certainly respect the sentiment however, is the Spring your favorite place because it's so wonderful or because everywhere else doesn't seem so great??

don't know that the answer falls entirely into either of those...

ahh... middle ground. the safest place to be! *smile*

not quite that either... *wink* (that's still legal, right?)

winking is complete fair game! *wink*

good...hate to know I'd lost everything... really am happy for you two!!!

thanks WER! We've worked hard at getting here... a long time coming!