same sky.

i got to spend a short 48 at home in georgia at the farm after our trip to the beach... 

my second sanctuary of the week. 

and a real treat before i headed back to reality and tennessee.

we rolled into Frolona, fresh from the surf, and the day was quickly turning to dusk.

we arrived just in time for a {much anticipated} veggie dinner prepared by the boys. 

dinner round the kitchen table, my mouth rivaled a hamster wheel telling stories, awful jokes and asking twenty 473 questions about josh's time in nashville.  

but i was shut down. convo cut short. josh happily escaped because he had to get down to the library to meet his friends coming over for their weekly night of "old time pickin".

oh, cool!, I thought. I'm familiar with those. 

we do that at home in nashville too, every tuesday.

i wanna come hang. have a beer or three, meet these folks...

i won't act out and scare josh's friends. i'll act normal {kinda}

no big deal.

...but, oh no. i'd not seen anything.

nothing. not like this.

i walked down the driveway to the library to find them perched out front.

in a simple circle of old kitchen chairs 

playing only from the small light inside and

the moon.

it was like we were living in a story book. 

damn near magical.

i looked over at mom and said "where am i?" 

this is crazy awesome and this is your normal, your every day. 

and you don't even know it...

she chuckles at me but doesn't get it 

and can't quite understand where my wonder comes from. she claims, 

"laurel, this is your home. you spent every single day of your life here for 18 years. and many more days in between. this is not a novelty to you?!"

but it is. it's different. it really is. 

same land. same silence. same sliver and stars in the same big sky.

but even when I first left for college, in my first visits home, after and for so many more since, 

..i often express how unbelievably dark it is outside at night. 

..i marvel at the stars. 

..i find contentment in the silence.

every. single. time.

eighteen solid years of those elements being all i knew, 

were quickly robbed and lost in a land of concrete, marquees and just plain noise.

and it kinda pisses me off.

until. i'm there.

..and my heart swells when i feel those dogs at our feet. i hear a mama cow calling for her calf in the distance.

..then i realize all those stars are always in the sky. every single night. but it's at home where i get believe in them again.

..how the creaks in the wooden floors never sound scary as i'm falling asleep. only a simple reminder of a 180 year old story behind the walls of an old farm home. 

..when i hear the simple sounds of the strings and voices of my brother and strangers. 

and am lucky enough to wonder...if the echo ever ends.