Southern Exposure

From Southern Lady:

Life is unique down South. I learned this lesson the hard way—by leaving. I have lived in New York City, Los Angeles, California, and nearly everywhere in between. And I stay in the perpetual state of homesick for Alabama.

The sense of peace I feel when I’m home is a treasure, an old relic of a life I lived here long ago. Like an antique typewriter—timeworn but so satisfying to the soul. I felt it just recently when I was home for a book signing. One night, gentle raindrops slapping against the aged windowpanes awakened me. I was soon tugged by memories of what Southern rain felt like, soft and fragrant. Before I knew it, I was standing on the back porch as the daybreak crept in, musty air mixed with damp cool. The rain seems softer here, the fragrance sweetened with the perfume of boxwoods, magnolias, fig trees, and the wet ground. I stood still on that old back porch and inhaled a South I miss every single day. It was a slow moment of Southern nature at its denouement, as if taking a bow at the end of an emotional play. I alone was the standing ovation. (Read more.)

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