To Go Vagabonding

We threw a goodbye party, sionara to mud struck Georgia and step off into the unknown. Dawn kept enough furniture around to make the place homey and give folks a place to sit and all, but it wasnt like we lived there anymore. Most of our possesions were sold off or packed in the trailer, some loaded higgedly-piggedly in a storage unit. One of the yogis brought magic cupcakes, and we had veggies, cheese and wine. The cupcakes did their job and soon the neighbors were floating around the little pink cottage smiling, laughing full of good cheer and brotherhood. Their political and religious affiliation ranged from anarchistic hippy Buddhist to Trumpian Straight-laced Christian, yet they got along famously comparing notes on lawn fertilizer and brownie recipes. The cat hilariously wrestled an Old English Bulldog puppy and a two year old human male led his grandma on a merry chase from back kitchen door to front porch and back. Gentle acoustic music played accompaniment to kaleidoscopic conversation. Most wore anti-Covid masks to start, but they slipped off noses and down chins as the night and the cupcakes wore on. There were no reports of subsequent infection. Echo, our dog, sulked in her kennel, separated from the revelry, prevented from exercising her watch dog duties. I floated among my neighbors, reminisced about the three years past, smiled, blathered some high nonsense and ushered them all out as darkness deepened and beds called. It was our first night on the road...it was our Darien departure.

Two days later, we closed on the house....six signatures and we were dismissed from the lawyers office, dollar rich and homeless. The truck, trailer and CRV were ready to go, so with no other options, cast adrift, we cruised out of town. Strange to think this was the last time we would cross the bridge over the muddy, capricious river fronting Darien, Georgia. Goodbye heavy Karma, goodbye live oak and spartina, goodbye shrimp and crab, goodbye racism and crazy, goodbye good friends and love.

We spent the next two days camped by a lake sorting out gear, readying to launch cross country. Live oak, palmetto, egrets, squirrels, crepe myrtals, spanish moss dug deep into my soul....peace, solemnity, beauty softened these days and they slipped away quiet, without fanfare. The landscape was consciousness made actual....Divinity in every leaf, twig, mushroom and water drop...enchantment for the taking.

I dont hate Georgia, there is wonder here. We moved here to make sure the old ones crossed over easy, cuz we were the only ones that could. We suffered through the final inevitable moments with all the grace we could summon...knew it was coming....and it's power still blew us away. There is holiness here.

Georgia will always be where I said goodbye to Mom and Dad. They chased a wild dream of oceans and adventure till it crashed against their debilitation. We came behind to clean up and make sure they werent ravaged. We did that....we protected them. Now, there is no one left to protect and we are cast loose to wander, to chase our own wild dreams, to crash against our own debilitation.

And so, we spirit away. We slip out of Georgia, perhaps to never return. The family drama is done, old ones passed or moved, nothing here for us anymore, our job done. Yet.....yet.....I will miss this place. It enchants me and I will carry that enchantment over the horizon, and down the road.