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I recently went back to my old home town of Boca Raton for a Christening.  It was a busy weekend with seeing family especially those we hadn’t seen in a long time.  But we did manage to spend an hour just driving around the city and seeing what had changed and what had stayed the same.

We started by doing something we loved to do before church – having breakfast at the Flakowitz Diner.  They make a 4 egg omelet that has no rivals.  Thad had his onion bialy and home fries and I had grits and a whole wheat bagel (I have to eat something healthy).  It was as good as ever and we did what we always did – boxed up half the food and took it home for the next day.  It was great stepping back in time.

As we drove along the ocean road of A1A, I passed South Beach Park where I remembered The Keg used to sit with its old sea worthy patrons knocking back a few beers.  I blew a kiss at the condo where I grew up and my mother lived till her passing in 1992.  Spanish River Park is still the same and brought up memories of many walks where I sorted through my life trying to figure out my future.  Wizard Ice Cream was a place where we took Francesca on her first outing at a mere 8 days old.  When Francesca was sick and I couldn’t get her to eat anything, I could call up Randy, the owner, and he would make a protein shake.  Francesca and I would drive up outside the store and he would run out to meet us and the shake and cash would change hands.  While Randy and Wizard’s Ice is no more, the memory it conjured was sweet as his frozen ice cream cakes were.  Where a native fish laboratory once was there’s a major interchange for the entrance of Florida Atlantic University; a now large and sprawling institution.

So many changes.  Boca seems to be both built out yet still building.  Old buildings and old Florida homes are remodeled or torn down and new ones are built.  Shopping centers, multi-use shopping and living complexes, restaurants change like most of us rotate our tires.   We reminisced about what was, and wondered at what will be.  As I pondered as to exactly what I was feeling, a question surfaced  –

Can you really go back home again?

 Yes, I think you can.  The caveat is that you must accept that life changes no matter where you are – Boca Raton or Oviedo.   Just because we leave an area doesn’t mean life in that city does not carry on and change without us.  Our own lives change constantly.  Our new city of Oviedo is undergoing constant, incredible growth and with it inevitably comes change.  Nothing stays static – neither the present nor the past.  Sometimes, we don’t like the changes in our lives; we can choose to accept them or be emotionally crushed by them.

I am okay with seeing the plethora of changes in Boca Raton.  I am neither sad nor happy but interested in revisiting the “then” and seeing the “now”.  The changes make me appreciate the old as well as the new.  Change offers us the opportunity to learn, grow and appreciate what we had and what we have.

Have you gone back to your home town?  What feelings did you experience?  Were you happy or sad with the changes?  Would you go back again?  What was the one take away from your experience?  Please share in the conversation.

 

Thank you for reading my post.  If you have found it encouraging please consider liking, commenting or sharing it.  Feel free to comment here or even re-blog – may these words take flight!

I have additional insights I’d love to share with you found in the pages of my debut book: Surviving Medical Mayhem – Laughing When It Hurts.  To order a copy or learn more go to my website at www.lorettaschoen.com

Blessings for Health & Wellness.