Moving on stinks, sometimes for you, sometimes for me . . .

I have lived in Bozeman, Montana for almost six years now. Bozeman is a town full of people who call someplace else home: people like my friends. For many years most of my friends called Yellowstone home. We all left Yellowstone at different times, making our way to this little home hoping to carve our own niche. Even though we come from other places, we have adopted Bozeman as home and we've adopted each other as family.

We are, by most accounts, incredibly lucky. We live in a gorgeous university town, and we are surrounded by friends. On most days this is enough. On some days, Bozeman is a challenge. Bozeman is a world between the adventure we all had in the park, when we had fewer commitments and concerns, and another home someplace else. But at some point we all made the choice to move on and to go back to what many parkies call "the real word," as if Yellowstone were just a fleeting paradise where one escaped.

In the real world, we might dream of the park, we might dream of our true homes, or we might be content in Bozeman. Some of us aren't content here in Bozeman and taht's when this "real world" starts to feel like limbo. A place where we all linger until we choose to move on. Do we move to the park, or do we seek another adventure either in a new locale or perhaps back home, somplace we left long ago for reasons we no longer remember? Two friends recently chose to move back home--I don't mean our Yellowstone home, I mean Cleveland home.

We all joined to say goodbye to this couple who has since headed home. The party was a blast until they left. After we hugged them, said goodbye and they walked out the door, we fell silent. After a pause some started joking to lighten the mood. Or was it because we didn't want to think of what it would be like if we chose to leave. Where is home for all of us now, and what does it hold for us?

Dave and Lisa and their little guy Nicholas have gone "home." For them it holds their true families, opportunity, and a new adventure. For us, their friends, we have Bozeman, which, as stated ebbs and flows in its charm for some of us (read: me). And while we wish them the best, we (again, read: me) will figure out how to make a go with a fewer friends in our adopted home.

But hey, at least now we have family in Cleveland . . .