Being the Wind over Prairies

'Belonging'... the reasons we wander the worlds but come back to the smells and sounds of our hometowns. That has rarely been summarized so aptly. We cannot build a new life in another world. For we are crippled by the constraints of father time.

“Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars

But when we have ambled enough in enough places among enough people...our hearts become the wind over prairies, whistling through the grasses, carrying the sound of grazing animals. We begin to belong in a sense, everywhere (as much as in a sense, nowhere).

Yet in our immense rush to see and be, what is the price we pay? We forget that we have not much time. (And, after all “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” )

“Please-tame me!' he said.
'I want to, very much,' the little prince replied. 'But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.'
'One only understands the things that one tames,' said the fox. 'Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me.'
'What must I do, to tame you?' asked the little prince.
'You must be very patient,' replied the fox. 'First you will sit down at a little distance from me-like that-in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day...” 

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince