In My Bones

I feel this place in my bones. Where the water laps the land’s edge, powdered clouds cover the sky in shapes of large sailing ships, metallic gray sprawled out to the horizon. Hog Island puffed out with its greenery and rock.

Eric’s at the side of the cottage cutting wood boards, slipping them into the window frames. I am at the kitchen table, laptop spread, fingers clacking on the keys with a window cracked open to let in the open air, the island cold that warns of winter’s sooner arrival.

Breath in my lungs, my soul. We belong here, with the laid-back lifestyle, the old cars cluttering fields and property, of the shops and restaurants only open until five, the isolation. Leaves of amber and brown break from branches and dance down to lay aligned on the lawn. Here, the world goes on forever. Here the world ends. What grace, what goodness this gift of a week is, the chance to help new friends fix their home, the chance to inhabit it while we do. //

It’s been a lonely place back home, surrounded by such familiarity and the people who care about me. But I never quite seem to find my place, to find a true fit. But here, as I bounce around the curved roads in Eric’s mammoth work van, among the twisted birches and backwoods gravel ways, I’m not even trying and I feel my skin settle into the soil.

This is how I come alive–lift my face to the sky and breathe in the cleansing air, the restorative wind. Drink in the dappled trees dancing along the shore. Listen to the lapping waves, the way they weave their rhythm into my heart.

Here I am home, at the edge of a northern island where winter is closing in fast. I am allowed to breathe and be myself, linger slow and say with confidence, “I am made for here; here I am exactly who I am made to be.” God’s breath all around, His eyes aligned in the brilliance of light, His smile stretches all along the waterline to match the width of my own. It comes effortlessly; I wasn’t even aware when it appeared.

**

Continuing my attempt at the Five Minute Friday weekly writing challenge. Five minutes to write on the assigned topic. Raw and unedited. (Yikes!) This week’s topic: Breathe.   // symbolizes where five minutes started and/or stopped.