There’s an old phrase, You Can Never Go Home Again. I’m not sure who coined it but I thoroughly disagree with it. I would guess whoever came up with this was viewing “home” as some static thing frozen in time instead of a bond that is more fluid and continues to evolve throughout a lifetime. I tend to believe the latter.
Late last week I took a very early morning flight to Columbus, OH and spent four days with my Mom. Unfortunately, my brother and his family could only join us for one of those days but we made the absolute most of it. Despite my parents having moved away from the house they raised us in in 2003 (and having moved three times since) whenever I walk through the door of their house, I experience an overwhelming sense of wellbeing that feels to me like home. Although we lost my Dad to Covid in 2020 it very much feels like his spirit is still there.
We all had a great time together – catching up, reminiscing, eating, laughing, visiting a lot of the parts of town that hold memories for us.
We began the trip with a great lunch and an excellent IPA at Three Tigers Brewing Company in Granville right after I dropped my bags off from the airport. Granville, Ohio is an idyllic college town about forty minutes East of Columbus. If you didn’t know better you would think you were in New England. The town definitely has an East Coast vibe and is worth a visit if you’re ever in the Central Ohio area.
We made the most of the twenty-four hours my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew were in town. My brother and I have managed to stay close despite almost thirty years of living apart. My nephew, Ryan, is growing up way too fast and has changed a lot since they all spent a week with us in Sedona, AZ this past February.
No visit is complete without making a batch of Cincinnati chili. If you’ve never tasted this kind of chili it’s very different from the flavors of a traditional chili con carne. The sauce is still tomato based but the recipe calls for cinnamon, clove, allspice, and dark chocolate and this makes it taste kind of similar to a Mexican mole sauce. We whipped this up Saturday for dinner that evening. We served it, Skyline style, over spaghetti noodles and topped it with raw onion and a nice, sharp cheddar cheese.
This is the main intersection of downtown Columbus, Broad and High Streets. As I travel the world and experience more of it Columbus looks a little bit smaller with every visit back. I remember as a child downtown Columbus seemed as big and bustling as New York City to us. It’s funny how time and experience changes us in that respect.
A rainbow I captured during one of my walks around the neighborhood.
My Mom’s townhome is built on the edge of a patch of woods in Johnstown, Ohio. She feeds the deer once a day in the evening. They start peeking their heads out from the edge of the woods at around the same time every afternoon (4:30) for their dried corn and apples. Sadly, “progress” is encroaching on the area and soon the deer will be forced to move away. Intel, the computer chip manufacturer, is moving into the area and causing an explosion of development.
This photo was taken at a restaurant near downtown Columbus called, Bendi. My Mom and I stumbled on it during one of my last visits and found a real gem. Their green coconut curry is one of the best I’ve tasted in my life. It was a great way to close the trip.
Goodbyes are never easy but this little guy made my afternoon a little brighter. As I was sitting, working on my laptop at the airport, he and a few of his friends kept visiting me and, of course, I had to share some of the oatmeal bar I was eating. I’m always amazed by how quickly you can get through security at the Columbus airport. I was through ticketing and security in under ten minutes. It almost makes it feel like a private airport compared to our airport in Minneapolis.
I’ve been visiting my family now for twenty-seven years and leaving has never gotten any easier. But the one thing we've all learned is to be appreciative for the time and the new memories that we have the opportunity to make together. I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
It’s also helpful to look forward to future visits. Being so far away for so long forces you to appreciate each moment you’re together and take none of it for granted. This has been a great lesson to apply to other areas of life as well. It's always been grounding and a sort of reset for my soul. I leave invigorated, grateful, and ready to tackle whatever project is next.
So much of the satisfaction we get out of life (or not) depends upon the lens in which we view our life experience through. Yes, goodbyes, they are difficult but I’m already looking forward to the next time I can go home again.
Be well and enjoy your week!
~Eric Vance Walton~
(All photos are original.)
Poetry should move us, it should change us, it should glitch our brains, shift our moods to another frequency. Poetry should evoke feelings of melancholy, whimsy, it should remind us what it feels like to be in love, or cause us to think about something in a completely different way. I view poetry, and all art really, as a temporary and fragile bridge between our world and a more pure and refined one. This is a world we could bring into creation if enough of us believed in it. This book is ephemera, destined to end up forgotten, lingering on some dusty shelf or tucked away in a dark attic. Yet the words, they will live on in memory. I hope these words become a part of you, bubble up into your memory when you least expect them to and make you feel a little more alive.
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