Kent and I are not originally from Mayberry. (True
Mayberrianites still shake their heads at us and wonder
about our strange ways.) We both were raised in The Big
City. When we first moved down here we would lie in bed
with the windows open and say, "I feel like I am at camp."
The sounds and smells were so different from those in The
Big City. That feeling still haunts (in a delicious way)
us.

This morning, as I was sitting on the love seat with an
open window at my back, I felt the sweet, cool breeze
blowing in, I smelled the dust and pollen floating upon
the air, and I listened to the outside world waking up
with its riot of bird calls, rooster crowings and dog
barkings.

That is what I would miss most if I ever had to leave
Mayberry, the smell and sounds and softness of a spring
or summer morning.

It is funny though, because there are other sounds and
odors that make me homesick for places that I have only
visited for short periods of time. I am homesick for the
ocean. A few times I have been able to be in a hut or
a motel right on the beach and listen to the incessant
swooshing of the waves and feel and smell the salt laden
air blowing in the window. Sometimes I ache with missing
those sounds and smells.

I miss The Big City too. Even though I grew up in the
suburbs, there is something I miss about being "downtown"
with all the energy and creativity of the people, the outside
restaurants, the folks walking their dogs, the highrise
apartments that make you wonder what is happening inside
all those windows.

I guess this feeling of being at home and yet never feeling
quite at home is just a symptom of living on this earth.
When even creation itself is groaning for its completion
(Romans 8:22-25)how can I expect to be totally comfortable
in it? Oh, may that day, that day of completion, hurry!