Miles Away - for Jo : Day 50 #100daysofwriting

I saw your name
Pop up on my phone
And I smiled.
I heard a song
From a band you love
And I smiled
I checked my calendar
To count the days
Till you come home
And I nearly cried
I shouldn't have looked
Soon seems sooner
Than the multitude of weeks
Miles separate us
Time zones splinter our reality.

Tell The World....

"I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Tell the World I'm coming home
Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Tell the World that I'm coming"
                                                          - Skylar Grey (Coming Home)

I got addicted to the P Diddy version while travelling last year. I remember discovering it on the playlist on the plane just before I landed in London, tears pushing to get out as the fields rolled out beneath us. I felt so emotional, this was my first trip outside of CT, I was about to see my best friends from school (strange how so many of them ended up across the sea), I'd done something brave, and I'd been travelling for about 19 hours on a smidgen of sleep...

I felt like I was about to escape reality and that all my mistakes would be washed away, I'd be reborn in England. I was forever changed by leaving everything at home for a month. I grew, my eyes opened, I was inspired. 

It was my theme song on the way home, when I was really coming home.... almost like a prayer that I had changed for the better, that I would still be me, that my kingdom would remember me....

When Granny was sick and dying, she kept saying that she was ready to "go home"... I knew she didn't mean back to Pinelands. On the day that she died, I put the P Diddy version on and howled during the chorus.

And now, I have discovered the original Skylar Grey version by accident, and it is soooooo utterly moving.

I see London, I see France, I see....

On my UK trip last year, I stayed with 5 different families (essentially). I've been fortunate enough, in the last seven months, to have the one family move back to CT, two of the families come visit (technically a third were here but I missed out of seeing them!) and the final family are coming to visit for Christmas! I feel very blessed and feel no need to travel outside of South Africa this year.

The trip really changed my life, opened my eyes and gave me a confidence I thought I'd lost. My parents have never been overseas - my dad is a bit of a home body, so I'm working on my mom. I'm pretty determined that we will go to Europe in July / August next year. A dear friend moved to Lyon close on four months ago - so we have someone to visit in France. We have people in London and Scotland. I'm sure we could bunk down somewhere in Amsterdam, or Prague, Italy or Spain.... *drifts into a daydream*

This REALLY needs to happen.....