Same

 No doubt my life has been a life of change. 

As a young child, I lived in at least four different houses before I was 5, not including the time I spent staying with my maternal grandparents. 

Then, following my parent's divorce, I lived with my paternal grandparents for a year until my mother rented a house and my brothers and I moved back in with her. A couple of years later she had married again and had another child, my third brother. When I was nine we moved to Idaho for a year, Wisconsin for four years, Texas for a year, and then Illinois where I lived for 40 years, though in different places. I lived in Hanover Park, Carbondale, and Rogers Park for high school, college, and my first job out of college. I was living in Belmont Harbor when I lived when Dan and we got married. We bought a house on the NW side of the city and then a second house in Elmwood Park. We sold that house and moved to Evanston when I started seminary. We lived in Evanston for four years then moved to Prospect Heights where we lived for 8 years. We moved to Arizona for two years, back to Chicago for one year, and then moved to Michigan where we lived for twelve years.

Twelve years in the same city, same house, same job. Literally a record for my lifetime.

So here I am, back in Dearborn. And a lot is exactly the same.

It's been lovely to see friends and familiar places. To walk the neighborhood and streets that are like home to me, I walked them all so often in the 12 years we lived here. Walking to restaurants and stores, the chiropractor and hair salon, and friend's homes.

Walking in a place that feels like home, familiar, so very much the same.

Well, except I don't live here anymore.