the pathways home...

Based on the title of this post, it would seem as if I had just returned from a trip...when in fact it is quite the opposite. I am preparing for a forthcoming journey.

I will be traveling to New York City where I will spend time being enveloped in the hustle bustle of a very busy almost frantic metropolis. This will be my 4th visit to the BIG Apple. All of my previous trips have taken me to Manhattan on business, and this one is no different.

If you have ever been to New York, then you know that it is a place like no other. Everything is surrounded by concrete, asphalt, metal, wire, steal, and glass. There is hardly any place for an individual to stand much less sit down to soak in the dazzling display of lights, sounds, and images flashing by you at lightning speed.

New York emits an energy like no other place I have been... determined serious faces race by you, no such thing as strolling down the street, and no one is ever smiling. Judging by my tone you would think I dislike the place. On the contrary, it is a urban jungle that is extremely interesting and somewhat intoxicating.

Being an artist, I quickly find myself enthralled with the textures, and colors I see. There are fanastic vivid images, graphics, and gritty graffiti art plastered across everything both above and below ground. I am exposed to new and cool products that I might not run into where I shop here in Kansas. The diversity of the many cultures and people you meet are fascinating. One neighborhood blends into another so that you can hardly tell where one starts and the other ends until all of a sudden you are smack dab in the middle of almost a different world.

Ahhh.. New York... I can almost see, hear, and taste it.

I must admit the trip is a welcomed distraction from the January melancholy I seem to be feeling. And, although this adventure is one that will keep me entertained with my mind focused on the business tasks at hand, I will return from my trip just a little different than when I left, for no journey is taken without changing you in some minute way. Yet, I know in my heart that each day, and every minute will bring me one step closer to the moment when I come full circle having traveled the pathways back to a place I call Home.