I’ve recently noticed that many good friends and acquaintances are leaving New Jersey in droves, for the moist heat of the southern climes.
I kind of get that. It’s expensive. It’s crowded. It gets cold here. There is a rough edge to this place and the people. Yet there is also great beauty to be found, and beneath that craggy exterior are many who care deeply for each other and this place they call home.
While I expect to make that trip over the border one of these days, I love that this bay-frontview is a five-minute drive or a short bike ride away. And in the opposite direction, across the waters of the Raritan Bay and over the hump of Staten Island, one of the greatest cities in the world shimmers in the evening sky, like the Land of Oz.
And this is only one of the treasures this place has to offer.
I’ve lived in New Jersey, pretty much my entire life, and despite its bad rap, it has shaped the person I am. It is my homeplace ❤️.
So, for now, I’ll continue to embrace the beauty and it’s sometimes in-your-face attitude. And when I do set off on that yellow brick road, the memories of my place will stay with me, wherever I might roam.
