This is exactly what I needed...

There's is nothing more inspiring while trying to sort your life out than returning to your roots for a good shot of humility, comfort, perspective and self examination.

I'm here in Dayton, Ohio, the place of my birth and early education, for a few days to visit family and friends. David, my oldest brother and his wife, Ursula,  of over 50 years, play host to my visit and take the time to listen to my stories and challenge my intellect and can spot immediately when I stray off course with my embellishments of my life away from my initial hometown. David challenges me when I begin to stutter and create my "Walter Mitty persona" in order to impress him with my adventures and escapades. He knows me too well. 

I sensed the first peaceful emotion as we approached the Ohio landscape from a descending 20,000 feet while viewing the patchwork of small farms of grain, beans and of course the ever familiar corn as it begins to grow as "as high as an elephant's eye"...oops wait, that was Oklahoma, the second phase of my long adventure. But still, even while flying with a hideous mask covering my face due to the imposed regulations of a pandemic, I felt the warmth of familiar sites as we got closer and closer to the location of so many of my stories of the past decades.

Dayton, as I remember it, is a smorgasbord of ethnic, hard working people who trust in their country, trust in their families and trust in each other. It gave me the cornerstone, along with my parents, to make something of my life. Dayton was the place where I learned the value of hard work by throwing newspapers, cleaning a barber shop and learning how to run a drill press at my Dad's small machine shop even before I had made it to my early teens.

Dayton was the place where my friends Bobby, and Eddie and of course "The Jer" and several others would test our skills, challenge the rules, and enjoy the world as we knew it and take each day, one day at a time to add to our resume'of life.experiences.

I've returned many times before, but for some reason this trip had a special meaning and one that I just now know as I write these words. I'm here to feel the presence of what made me who I am, something that I have lost along the way.

I'm here to take in the sites and sounds of a time I've forgotten, taste the nourishment of such wonderful foods like Hungarian cabbage rolls, the staple of the Kender household as a child, and tell myself, that "Yes,  Life is truly good and am so thankful for my health and a chance to live yet another chapter of a beautiful life".

Despite the appearance of a crazed world crumbling before me, I have a rebirth in myself. That's what is important. This is who I am. This is why I am here. Hellllooooo Dayton!.

Peace.