Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder" The "Is It True?" Series...

Welcome to Honor Your Truth

The “Is it True?” Series Episode Forty-Nine

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”

I’m combing the streets of Chicago, looking for clues, and feeling oddly like a stranger. This town was my home for so many years, yet now, I’m a visitor. I feel a little nostalgic. I’m yearning to connect to my old life and who I was back then, but things have changed, I’ve changed. It feels weird here….even surreal. It can’t be true, but it is….. I have a whole different life in a whole different place and I don’t live here anymore. Everything seems as if it is encased in glass. If I reach out to touch something, I’ll bump into it. I realize that I don’t own this place anymore like we all thought we did back in the day. I’m merely window shopping.

My old familiar neighborhood, which was at the time home to starving artists and musicians, is now filled pricey boutiques and high end condominiums. As far as I can tell, the transformation has its good and bad points, but it’s no where near the same. If it weren’t for the little dives like “The Rainbo Club”, I would not recognize it. I’m sure my Polish neighbor, who was like a grandma to me, felt similarly freaked out by the infiltration of us young hipsters to the area.

She and I got to know each other. She could fold a mean sheet. I don’t know how in the world she did it, because she did it in a flash. She could somehow fold the bottom sheet into a neat little square, no bunchiness, no elastic hanging out the sides. It was like magic. She was a whippersnapper when it came to laundry. I do my best to fold the bottom sheet, but eventually I give up, lop it over, and throw it in the basket. They just won’t fold, unless you’re Helena.

She would look out for me. She knew when I came and went. The security light would come on when I crawled into my basement apartment like a mole. If I came home late, she knew, which had its obvious pitfalls, but still a cool thing in a big city. My street was ok, but one block over was “sketchy”, as my dad would put it. More often than not, I couldn’t find a place to park. People would mark their spot with a chair. This is a bizarre phenomenon….people thinking they own a piece of street. However, I never once moved a chair, which was probably wise. Despite my risky late night cutting through the alley, I never really had any problems. One morning I woke up to a car full of leaves….and I mean totally full of crispy fall leaves, but I am fairly certain this had very little to do with the “hood”. Any troubles I had were primarily of my own making.

I was in some kind of a codependent haze when I left there. I was running. I knew and understood the quote, “wherever you are, there you are” but decided to accept the fact that I’d be bringing myself along. I just wanted outta there so I could think…get some perspective…...

1. By: honoryourtruth
2. Categories People & Stories
3. Views 116
4. Added :03-May-09
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