Homecoming 2008

As much as I loved the conference, and as much as I loved getting to see my family, there is no joy quite like that of returning home.

It’s good to be back on British soil, and getting off the train and smelling the lovely spring air of York was an absolute delight. It occurred to me that there’s something a bit peculiar about that, given that a lot of people would say I’d just been home, but I am not more convinced than ever that York is where I’m meant to be. Here I feel peaceful and content, cosy and comfortable. In York I’m safe, and I’m settled, and I’m secure, all of which I can say even after the emotional fiasco of 2007. That fact alone convinces me that, yes, I am home, both in the literal and more cosmic senses of the term.

I love the Villa, so walking in the front door was a very happy thing. I’m glad I cleaned so well before I left, and I think James did a bit more with the tidying up, because it wasn’t just the Villa, but the Villa at its very best. I suppose I could, theoretically, be happier, but it’s hard to imagine. It was also good timing getting in on Tuesday morning: even though I was absolutely knackered after about twenty-four hours on the road, I came home to Kate’s birthday dinner and our last Lords rehearsal before performance, which gave me the chance to see everybody again, and go out that night (I had missed English pubs), and then on Wednesday we had our Snobs luncheon, following by an afternoon of perusing the shops and streets of the beautiful city. This is my recipe for life’s perfection; and because I am, at heart, people-oriented, it was wonderful to see the Tribe again, and everyone else.

Travel is something I’m always going to do, and love, and want to do more of, but I’ve come to realise that its purpose is twofold. I adore getting to see the world and different places, people and things that are not quite like those to which I am accustomed (and at this point America does count as foreign- curiously, within the first twenty-four hours home, James told me that I’m getting an accent on certain words, and I had someone else ask about my ‘Irish’ accent). But it also makes me appreciate home even more (which is a challenge, as not a day goes by when I do not stop and ponder my good fortune at landing in York and the Villa, among people I love so well). I’m not sure what I did to deserve the life that I have here.... but I’m awfully glad to be back to it.