Just bury me beneath that big clear blue Texas sky when it’s time. Somewhere next to the river with magnolias and pecans for my shade will do. The big century Live Oak can stand guard over my resting place and I’ll be content. I don’t need a mausoleum, just those big green trees and blue skies for company. I hope that’s still an option a hundred years or so from now, because I’m not dropping dead for a good while. I’ll go explore the world and make a life out of finding new trails and old haunts but I’ll come home to this land someday. I’ll know I’m home when breathe that Southern air and listen to that country twang that even most of the city-dwellers have down here. It might be harder to find by then but I know where to find the good ol’ boys and I speak their language.
Life takes you along interesting paths though. It’ll take you into an area and group of people long enough for you to make lasting memories and feel it in your blood then take you once more to another place. I still miss the country sometimes. I regret that I haven’t seen my old friends from that area much this year but my life is here now and it gets increasingly harder to get away. Perhaps I can see them in my winter break. Then again it might be nice to just sit around and read instead of burn up the roads. My old Chevy truck is on its last legs anyway which doesn’t encourage driving back country roads. I feel pretty distant from that time and place now, and not just geographically. Sure, if my old buddy called me up and needed a favor I’d oblige but we don’t talk much these days. I’ve moved into different social circles now. It isn’t really something I regret, it’s just life and it’s interesting to examine the pattern.
