Like this:

I’ve not been gone a week, but I already miss home.

I’m not sure how my sister’s family have done it, having already been here for more than a month, and it really speaks volumes about their faith, as well as their toughness.

I know they’ve had their moments where they’ve missed Kentucky quite a bit, but there is just absolutely no way I could do what they’ve done.

I don’t miss the the comforts of home, the things like air-conditioning and hot showers. I don’t miss the cars and the traffic, the non-stop playing of the same songs on the same radio stations, the mindless bleating of talk radio, things like that.

I have to admit that I miss some of the little things, though, seeminly insignificant things like buffalo chicken salads. It’s Thursday; I should have had one by now.

Food items aside, other, larger things keep crossing my mind.

I miss you.

Each of you.

The people I talk to every day, the people who call me, who e-mail me, who text me. The habit of checking those forms of communication have been hard to break (other than updating this blog and reading the commens posted, I’ve cut myself off from any other contact). Sometimes I turn on my phone, just because it feels right to have it on, just because you might be writing to me.

You’re with me when I write these blogs — knowing that you’re reading them keeps me feeling close to you. Knowing that you care, keeps me writing them. The circle continues.

So, for each of you out there back home, wherever that might be, know that you’re on my mind. I can’t wait to see you.

Until then, I ask one favor of you: this evening, let’s say at 7 p.m. in Kentucky, I’d like you to get out your favorite piece of music. Play an album, or pop in a CD, or if you’re not near any music players, just sing in your head. I want you to turn it up loud, and I want you to enjoy it like you’ve never enjoyed it before — the music, the words, the meaning.

Play it, dance, sing, whatever you need to do to get wrapped up in the moment. Then think about all the other readers of this blog (including its author) doing the same thing and realize we’re all in this together, thinking of each other, working to make this place just a little better than we found it this morning.

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