Some Places I've Been
If you've been around here long, you'll know that I write monthly for a wonderful collaborative blog called You Are Here.
Each month, we explore a different theme tied to place. I always think that two people will tell a similar story, but they never do. Each piece is unique, just like the author.
You Are Here, like this blog, is a place that I write to remember the joy of writing an essay as well as the challenge and delight of writing within constraints. These pieces are often favorites of mine. Over the past three months, I've written three pieces that I've been remiss in sharing with you. As I looked at them together, I realized that they create a bigger arc of the last few months. Perhaps the timing was just right.
While you're at You Are Here, be sure to check out some of the beautiful essays by other contributors. It's an honor to be writing among them.
Scent and Place: The Future Syrah
I stood with the bottle in front of me, corkscrew in hand. The note on the bottle, written in my own handwriting, told me that it was “not to be opened before May 22, 2015.” I cut the foil, and slowly rotated my key into the cork.
Losing Place: Visiting With Ghosts
About once a month, I wish that I could revisit a place from my past. It’s not always the same place (though some are recurring), but my terms are always the same: I want to be alone and undisturbed. I want to be able to look around to my heart’s content, and I want it to be exactly as it was when I was there.
When I was seven, my parents packed up two U-Hauls, myself and my 5-year-old brother. We drove three days from San Diego, my birthplace, to our new home in Spokane, Washington.
Spokane is on the eastern side of Washington State, the side everyone forgets is here. Around election season, the majority put up conservative signs. On this side of the Rockies, there is a desert. It rains, but not frequently.
Read more at You Are Here.