Geography of the soul

This tiny sand crab is no bigger than my fingernail on a worrisome day. I smiled at his quick sideways scurry, and again with recognition that I've found my true home and joy with each new discovery (tiny though it may be) on the island.

"There is an internal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its outlines all our lives.

"Those who are lucky enough to find it ease like water over a stone, onto its fluid contours, and are home.

"Some find it in the place of their birth; others may leave a seaside town, parched, and find themselves refreshed in the desert. There are those born in rolling countryside who are really only at ease in the intense and busy loneliness of the city.

"For some, the search is for the imprint of another; a child or a mother, a grandfather or a brother, a lover, a husband, a wife, or a foe.

"We may go through our lives happy or unhappy, successful or unfulfilled, loved or unloved, without ever standing cold with the shock of recognition, without ever feeling the agony as the twisted iron in our soul unlocks itself and we slip at last into place."

-- Josephine Hart