is this home?

so, you know that feeling you get? the big-hearted one, where it feels like the world is all right, and suddenly everything is place, and there's peace and comfort and even something like awe--at life and the world around you? where it's just right? it feels like you're taking in everything, and your heart has opened up to the world and you're just soaking it all in?

I felt that earlier this week.

It had been raining, and the sun had just come out, and the trees were all dripping from the rain, the color of the leaves intensified by the droplets still clinging to them....the sunlight was reflecting on the puddles that had gathered, the pine trees were glowing and sparkling, and the wind shook refreshing little sprinkles from the tree boughs and branches.

and suddenly North Carolina felt like home. like my home. I don't believe I'll still be living here by this time next year, but it was a nice confirmation that, for now, I'm right where I should be.