Solid as an Oak

  Like most other folks, there have been times when I have gotten wanderlust.  Not often...just a few times but still, I pondered what it would be like to roam the world or live elsewhere.  My brain would dream of all sorts of fantastical places that might tickle the fancy but, here lately, the conclusion was reached that my life would probably be right here on the Bayou.  Chances are, I will never leave.  Not that it would be a bad thing to travel but I am comfortable here.  I figure that I am a part of the Bayou just as it is a part of me.  

  Just recently, it struck me that this place has far too many memories bouncing around it.   Perhaps that is what keeps me tied to it.  The bond is as solid as an oak...particularly one oak.  Down by the marsh edge, there stands an old oak tree that my kids had dubbed as "Old Man Oak".  Way back when they were still young enough to climb trees, this was their favorite.  Old Man Oak held them in his arms high above any perils of the world.  The tree guarded them against all of the "ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties" that roamed the Bayou (to borrow a line from the Scottish poem "Things That Go Bump in the Night").  More oft than not, when I would wonder where in the world the kids had traipsed, I could find them in this tree.   There, they were as far away as their imaginations could take them, yet, still safe in the arms of the Old Man.

  Yesterday being my birthday, my son-in-law stopped in with a plate of home-baked cookies. (Not many mothers-in-law can say their sons-in-law bake for them!  I can!)  While here, he and I stood in the yard talking and he made the comment that "You can never sell this place.  It just would not be right for you to be anywhere else."  He is right.  I would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else that would suit me.  My love for the Bayou is as solid as Old Man Oak so unless there is another mystical, magical swamp that can lure me, I will stay right here.