Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 9:19 PM

There are some songs that will always be current and will touch you deep in the soul, no matter what generation you were born to. Homeward Bound grips one’s soul with its poignancy, its yearnings, its pictures of bleakness, while still making you feel warm inside because of the fact that you are going home. It’s not only the lyrics, but also the melody of this masterpiece, written in 1966 by Paul Simon, of Simon and Garfunkel fame. What a beautiful song, and, as I mentioned to you before, it will always pull on your heartstrings.

For those of us living in the diaspora, returning to the place of your birth is almost sacred in its fulfillment. You are not returning only to a place, but to your family, your childhood, your memories that will never fade. No matter who you are, going home is always special and heartwarming. You are sitting on that airplane or train or bus or car or boat, recalling events that have been your comforting companions through tough times, and that have kept you centered in that strange land. And now, you are homeward bound.

People at home envy you and your life and adventures abroad, when in truth they are the lucky ones. They don’t have to miss Christmas or Independence Day celebrations, or the Cross Country races. They don’t miss mango and cashew and lobster seasons. Their winters are warm, and their lives are much more orderly than those who live in the diaspora; after all, they are home, not “wandering on some foreign strand;” or, as Keats describes it in Ode To A Nightingale, “the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home, she stood in tears among the alien corn.” No, envy should not take away from the comforts of being in your own home in your own country.

Those of us who returned to live in Belize are both brave and lucky. After spending many years abroad, it is very difficult to return to living a life in a 3rd World environment. The adjustments can be challenging, until you fall into the rhythms of a slower pace, and accept the absence of some things that you took for granted that are now missing. But eventually, you fall right back into the routine, like you never left.

It amazes me how one song can stir up all those emotions, brought on by the thought and act, of being homeward bound. Wat a ting!

“Every day’s an endless stream

Of cigarettes and magazines

And each town looks the same to me

The movies and the factories

And every stranger’s face I see

Reminds me that I long to be

Homeward bound

I wish I was

Homeward bound.” – Paul Simon

Glen