Cheers
Lake Bruin Sunset, no filters
Sometimes you want to go/Where everybody knows your name/And they’re always glad you came/You want to be where you can see/Our troubles are all the same/You want to be where everybody knows your name
- Cheers Theme Song (CBS)
You’re singing it, right? Welcome to my head.
I’ve had a bit of a vacation- actually more of a sabbatical - from blogging for the past year or so. I wasn’t off relaxing or anything; in fact, it was an extremely busy, eventful year for the Michelli fam. In a nutshell, we’ve relocated; landed in the South again, near kin and kind.
We are, at long last, back on home turf, in Louisiana, in Tensas Parish (that’s County if you’re not Louisianan), population 4500. We hail from these parts, we McDaniel-Cannons. And that’s what’s got me in a Cheers frame of mind.
Sometimes you just want to be where people know your momma-an-nem.
Word has gotten around that we’re here. A sweet lady across the lake called me because my neighbor, who is her bestie, said I had a camper and, well, did I want to sell it? And by the way, my dad gave her my number; they went to school together in the 50’s.
The wireless internet provider showed up before we called, summoned by the previous homeowner, who is also the Coroner, and whose wife was rumored to be my kin. (She’s not, but we had a time tracing family trees together.) When I’m asked, I just say we bought the old McEacharn place. Everybody knows where it is.
During the COVID-19 quarantine, several masked neighbors have asked who my grandparents were, or what was my family name. Did I know so-and-so? They lived here. Or there. They knew your MaMaw. I knew your MaMaw. She was my nurse and she slipped me peppermints. These things matter here. You see, in this place, we are united by history.
As I try to connect the Tensas Parish ancestral dots, I rely on the remarkable memory of my cousin Lawrence. Of the preacher he observed, “We’re not related, but we have the same kin people.” Lawrence’s boat is in my slip out back, because what’s his is mine, and because he’s good people.
These things make me feel connected, and right about now, feeling connected is gold.
Belonging is the hurdle to the heart, isn’t it? I used to believe this to be especially true of teenagers, but now I’ve lived long enough to know that it’s just true. Yesterday, Easton received a college recruitment mailer, which read, “You Belong!” in bold letters across the front and I thought, what a hook! Who doesn’t want to belong? When we feel a part of something - connected in an unquestionable way - we free up that emotional space to live better, deeper, and truer.
A home on Lake Bruin has fallen into our lap, and we’ve jumped at the chance to move here full time. I can’t think why we didn’t do this sooner. Our place is small on space but large on living, and best of all, people are starting know our name, and they seem pretty glad we came.
