in good hands

not to sound like an Allstate commercial, but I do believe there is something to the idea of getting back to basics. This isn't a new concept and I'm certainly not taking advice from the former president of Jack Bauer's universe merely because he tells me I'm 'in good hands'. The statement just rings true to me. {And can you blame me if I did listen to that man? It's gotta be the voice.}
Maybe it has something to do with being removed, or really, completely disconnected, from the basic things I appreciate and love. I knew it would all still be here, so I didn't miss it at all. I completely put it behind me. Any kind of thought that would crop up out there coming from the direction of home was easy to put aside because what could I possibly do from there about missing anything? Nothing.
So, being reunited with 'home life' again and feeling overwhelmed by how familiar everything is while at the same time being a foreigner in my own regular day to day life is a pretty cool trip if you ask me. I recommend it to anyone to step outside your norm and take a good look at what you hold dear.
Like the true bug lover that I am, I have been observing from a introspective vantage point how everything has slowly come into focus around me. What really touches me, what am I doing with my life?
So as you can expect, and certainly saw coming a mile away with all my foreshadowing is: Experiencing everything that is familiar again has brought a new appreciation to, well, the basics.
I like the chores of life. Running around town, sending in resumes by the bushel. Wondering what kind of work I'll find and where it'll take me from here. I liked having the short term responsibility while the fam was at the lake of turning on the sprinkler for the garden. And the feeling of warm cement on my bare feet. I liked having pizza with the family tonight and wandering over to Jackie's house with a feeble made up excuse of why I needed to be there only to hold the measuring tape for Jeff while he works on a project and hanging out with Jackie in the drive way while she spot cleaned the upholstery in her car.
I knew getting away would be good for putting things in perspective, but what the new perspective would be - I hadn't a clue. I knew it'd be interesting and that is why I wanted it. Things were getting stale. The fear was that I wouldn't know how to curb the wild adventure streak once I got back and had to get back to responsible living once again.
I think that perspective I am always after is an always changing thing. Ever the layering of wishes/experiences/heartache/achievements in the way unfolding life does things with all of it's unforeseen messiness and perfectly falling pieces that create our stories while we love/worry/laugh our way through the day to day-ness. {Picture the music montage at the end of a tv show episode and this is what I'm conjuring up in my head to fit what I'm trying to describe. Put it to music with some soul and beat to it and you've got it.}
I was breathing in adventure while out to sea, now it feels like I'm exhaling an energized and renewed love for the simple pleasures - the basics of life.
Who knows, maybe I should think about switching to Allstate, it seems I've really taken to their ad campaign. Ever the sucker for good consumerism.