"So why did you leave your last company?" Doing the best Dorothy impression I can manage in non-skid shoes..."I want to go home, I want to go home, I want..."
"So you're from this area then?"
No, but this is where I want to be.
"What makes this home to you?"
My heart is here.
These are not unexpected questions in an interview process. What is a little confusing to me is that potential employers find it hard to believe that someone would walk away from a long term career making good money just to come home, to a place that hasn't adopted me or even where there are family ties.
Most of them have never sat on the front porch, on a mountain, in a forest, while the rain beat down on a metal roof during a cool summer evening. Most of them never came face to face with a black bear, 12 point buck, or wild turkeys. Most of them never fed their families with what grows in or wanders around in the yard.
In the 3 years that we were gone, our empty home waited for us to return. The vacant dog house on the front porch, an empty litter box anticipating its need. Fruit trees, grape vines, and berry bushes hoping to be gleaned of fruit by human hands.Wanting the chickens to groom the yard. Bees and humming birds, bats and squirrels all whispering in the night, infecting our dreams with promises of peace. A place where we belong. Home.
Most of them won't get it, some of YOU will.
