The motherland

I'm feeling the pull of the ancestral roots today. Although I've been living away from Samoa for 27 years, I still occasionally get homesick. I lived in Samoa from the time I was four until I was sixteen. I went away to college then and never lived there again. I have returned for vacations and extended visits, but my permanent address has always been elsewhere from that time on. I love Samoa. You know those scenes in the movies where a person returns home after a long absence and they fall on the ground and kiss it? That's how I feel when I go home. No I don't kiss the ground at the airport, but I might have in the past at a certain favorite beach of mine, when no one was looking. I love Samoa for the land and its beauty. It's the greenest, most lush place I have ever been. And green feeds my soul, the way blue (the ocean) feeds my husband's. I love Samoa for its people- so ready to laugh, so ready to give, so laid back, except when they're mad. I love Samoa most of all for my family. I have two nieces that I have never held in my arms and my father's birthday is coming up. I'll have to content myself with sending a box. That's what Samoans do that live abroad, they send boxes to show their love, and sometimes envelopes. So this post is going out to all the Sams living in homes away from home. Happy as we may be where we are, and as much as we may need to be where we are, we still feel the tug on the heartstrings when the family and the motherland come up. May these pics help, and feed your soul.

These were taken by Siwa last summer.