Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Latitude 30.46, Longitude 87.19











Northern Gulf Coast. Panhandle. Florida. White Sands. Pensacola. Always home, always. It is here that I was born. It is a connection to land and water that will never change. It is in my DNA.

I recently stood on these shores, connecting to all that makes me who I am. It's a good feeling to be "home". Everyone has a "home". It's not always where they were born. Some discover this home late in life. It's that place, I guess, that just makes you feel at peace, connected, well, at home! Home is where you get your strength from, that well deep inside you, blended with however you relate to the Creator, that helps you stay centered and in harmony.

Pensacola is Americas first settlement. Spanish explorers brought their ships into what they called the "best port in the Caribbean", some 450 years ago. They were met by Indians that had been here thousands of years before, the Panzacola Indians. So as we all know Columbus, DeSoto, DeLuna, all those folks didn't really discover anything in the true sense of the word. They just found a land they had never seen. I feel the connection to those before me and honor their part in the shaping of what I see. History in Pensacola as well as other places didn't begin with the written word, so I grew up with only part of the story. In my spirit I want to honor the whole story, from the Creator thru every people that left their mark and raised their families, and turned the soil and watched the sunrise. We are all connected and we are all related, people and land. Mitakuye Oyasin! We are all related!

It is good to connect with home. The parts you like and the parts you don't like, for they both have influence on shaping the way you see the world. I am happy to share my home with my family. For some of my family it will be the home of their heart. They will ingest and breathe it as their forefathers have. They are in the line. They are in the land and the water. I think we should all connect with that place we call home. I hope you will embrace yours, wherever that is. Mine just happens to be at Latitude 30.46, Longitude 87.19

Aloha, GS