February's Key

Dear Everyone,


I have cracked the code of February and it is simple:

go home.


Now that I've made that bold statement, let me temper, clarify, analyze, and do all the things.

When I say I've "cracked" February, I don't mean I've found a way to take the February out of February. Much like what I call The Rock of Truth--something I contend with in my work as a nonfiction writer--you can go under February, you can't go around February, you can't go over February...


you have to go through it.


We all know about this. And though we all gamely do it every February and find a little digital refuge on this blog, I can't recommend highly enough the Good Medicine that going home during February has to offer.

Now about this "home." I bet you all understand that when I say "home" I don't necessarily mean the place where you grew up, though home might mean also that to you. Last year in the last week of February, I got to go back to Seattle, the place where I grew up, for a conference related to my graduate studies. When I saw Mount Rainier, that ever-present monolith that's so always there that it ends up becoming kind of invisible to Seattleites, I wept with relief and release.

When I say home I mean your spiritual home. Duh. I'm willing to wager that many of you are fortunate enough have more than one of these. So what I'm saying is if you have any way to get yourself to one of these homes during this longest shortest month of the year

do it do it do it do it. 

I also want to add that home might not even be a place. To modify a line of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, home can be wherever you're with a "you." And by a "you" I mean someone you cherish and who cherishes you, with whom you go waaaaaay back, who is your Partner in Getting It.  
Now, watch this toe-curlingly delightful video from Burning Man 2011, which uses "Home" by Edward Sharpe et al. to evince both the person and place meaning of the word. 

So all this throat clarifying this is to say that last weekend and this February I had the opportunity to return to another one of my homes--

Brown.

Some of you probably already saw my posts on Facebook about this. I'm going to repeat myself a little. Please excuse me.

So when I got to Providence it was about 12 degrees outside. But I was so happy to be back that I didn't care. Brown is a place that was supremely nurturing for me. It was a place where I met so many of the people whom I continue to deeply love, many of whom are reading this blog, and where I felt wholly seen and appreciated and valued for what I have to offer the world for the first time in my life.

The first thing I did when got to College Hill was tramp through the 3 foot deep drifts to the Main Green and feel emotional.

Then I went to Hillel and continued to feel emotional, thinking of you--

The next morning, I went to Coffee Exchange and sat with my latte watching the elder men gather and assess the day. I always loved that it happened at Coffee Ex, but when I was a student, I always felt like I had too much work to do and never stopped to just watch it all unfold. This time, I left myself.

The whole reason I was back at Brown was to lead a workshop on ethical storytelling at the Swearer Center. Though they're no longer exactly my peers, Brown students continue to blow my mind. I opened the session by asking the group to freewrite for 5 minutes about what came to mind when they thought of the word "integrity." This how one of the young women drew out her understanding:

Later, I went to the bathroom in the Swearer Center, saw this, and remembered for the bajillionth time why I continue to be obsessed with this place.

Jana asked me to take a picture of the First Baptist Church for her, so I'm going to include that as well. Just looking at it is one of the many small pleasures of Providence. 

The next morning, I had the great pleasure of breakfast at Seven Stars with Sarah Rapoport and later of staying over at her charming and huge apartment. How we managed to not take a picture of any of this, I'm not sure. 

And as if all that wasn't enough, Sophie drove from Boston to hang for a few hours with me on Saturday, which we spent at the Athenaeum and then the RISD museum, visiting this old friend: 

Then we had a bit of a photoshoot.

I left Providence on Sunday with a sore throat but nonetheless feeling nourished and full and refueled. I can't think of a better way to say it than the way I originally said it on Facebook, so here's that again: 

This visit to Providence made it clearer than ever that Brown planted the seeds from which I continue to grow. It was the place where I saw integrity, passion, vision, great heart, and powerful thought modeled on a daily basis. It gave me a blueprint for a life.

Revisiting touchstones and reconnecting with roots. It's significant and powerful and damn it feels good. It might be a little late for anyone reading to do this with the remaining three (!) days of February, but then again, maybe not. Revisiting, rerooting, and reconnecting can be as simple as getting on Facetime. It can be as impulsive as booking a plane ticket or hopping in the car. 

I hope this ramble inspires some of you to reach towards home in whatever way is right for you now. And for those of you who share Brown as a spiritual home, I hope this post has brought a little dose of it for you, giving you a teensy push to get you to the finish line.