leaving Hackney

I gathered myself up and set off for home this morning. Not quite for the last time, but nearly. 
The girl's new flat is planted firmly in my family's ancient stamping ground, though the past has seemed much less relevant since we have been dealing with so much future. 
Nonetheless I have been very aware of retracing my own first steps along this very road. And my father's, and my grandmothers ... It has all been strangely familiar and thought- provoking...
But the girl has decided to give up the flat, to spend her maternity leave at home in the country, and so we are probably leaving this area for good. I am still trying to figure out what it has meant in my own personal story to have been back here ....

I arrived home to a beautiful West Cork shining in the sunshine.