The whirlwind is settling

Sand, sea and feelings behind me, Bournemouth seems a long time ago. After a year apart, I finally have the majority of my belongings with me and home feels even more like home. Going back to Salford felt like a circle had completed, like something had finished. Two of my brothers used to live in the community housed in those little poetic streets, I lived there for one summer when I was 17 and I worked hard to earn money for the first time in my life - photo flashes come into my head of newspaper from the 70s lining the carpets, trying to wallpaper the ceiling and, afterwards, trying to wash wallpaper paste out of my hair. Now my nephew lives there and when I collected my stuff I felt like I had finally been able to close the circle on everything that happened there and it was with sadness that I said goodbye - to the poetic streets, Rudyard St, Kipling St, and to the church at the end of the road where the evil dogs chased me and caused me to break my foot. I remembered going back to my brother's that time, for food, sitting in his small living room with my sister, my parents, my aunt and my cousin. It was family time and family moves on. They're still around me and still in my heart, but not like it was then.

I look around me and I smile. Maybe this weekend when the whirlwind stops, I'll be able to stop and enjoy it a little more. This is my home now and my heart glows with warmth and happiness.