~and the porch on 14th Street was one of them~

     My mom used to love to sit on her front porch and watch life travel by her.  It was a great place with a wonderful vantage point to see all of the car and foot traffic that went by on East 14th Street back in Hutchinson.  Sometimes I would stop by for a visit and that is where I would find her, most generally with a nice smile on her face.  She would tell the story of all the college and high school kids going by in their cars.  Mom got really tickled with this one little blonde haired boy that habitually came by each school morning, swinging his back pack all along the way.  If he wasn't swinging it, then he was dragging it.  It was entertaining for Mom and she loved it.

     Years later I bought her house.  I began to enjoy doing just what she had done.  Every morning I found myself out there, often just before the sunrise as I waited for the world on 14th Street to awaken.  I started to notice the same pattern of people every single day from the guy down the street who daily walked his two dogs to the teenager who seemed oblivious to the world around him as he listened to his favorite music through headphones.  Every morning I waited for them. Then I realized it.

     I had become my mom.

      Before I moved to Colorado in 2013, I sold, put into storage, or gave away much of what I had.  There's a limit to what a person can pack into a rental truck and with 611 miles and one huge mountain to climb over, it seemed the best idea.  The porch furniture actually went first with many of the beautiful plants that were growing given to friends. Soon the porch became empty with nothing left but remembrances of a lovely life.  The times and memories of that old front porch went with me and I kept them tucked deep into my heart.  When I sold the house in 2015, I stood right there for a moment, saying good-bye to a place that had been like a lifelong friend.  It wasn't all that easy.  I remember a tear rolling down my face.

     There are some places in life that I have just felt really comfortable and safe in.  When I was a little kid, it was my Grandmother Brown's basement on Locust Street.  Growing up as a teenager in Haven, Kansas it was in my upstairs bedroom in my folks' house south of town.  As an adult, a mother with three children of her own, I found peace anywhere my children were. Now that I am older, perhaps the place I feel the most at ease with is where all the wonderful and precious memories are tucked safely into. 

     My heart.

     From 2005 until 2015, that house was mine.  It was like a shelter from the storms of life.  I found peace there and recognized it as the sanctuary that it truly was.  I can remember no sad times there, only happy ones.  During my last trip back to Hutchinson a month or so ago, I decided to drive by once again.  No one lives there now it would appear and it looks kind of lonely.  
     
     There are some places in life that I have just felt comfortable in.

     The porch on 14th street was one of them.