i will spin a yarn some won’t believe and some will pause and hope that it’s true

because deep inside each of us is a desire to experience the magic and essence of life

knew an old bloke who was a bum and lived in a group of trees

learned to fish and feed himself by doing odd jobs for the friends he made

turned to the drink when his entire family was lost in a fire, walked away from main street and began living in his car

that got towed and he went to the river and made a little camp that could only be accessed by a zip line that he learned how to make in the navy

sitting high on a little hill it was high enough to avoid being flooded and you wouldn’t see it if you didn’t know where to look

when i met Jimmy i made it clear i wanted nothing from him but his friendship and his story which he told me after knowing me for a year

i knew where he fished and brought him anything i couldn’t use or the ”overflow” we all have an overflow, some more than others and some less

one Sunday morning i found him on the bank and i brought him a thermos full of coffee

he began Mike, [ he likes to call people by their middle name because he says they don’t get used enough, i kinda like it makes me feel different and our relationship is different] 30 years ago lost everything in a fire, family, love, hope, 3 kids and the best dog you ever could have asked fer. lost my mind and way, tried to drink myself to death and didn’t die just screwed up my health. doctors at the VA said if i kept drinking i would die and i said okay that was my plan. i left and i came down here to fish and think, drinking a fifth of ”rockgut” vodka. i wasn’t catching anything but it didn’t matter and then i hear’s a voice and and i thought it was the alcohol so i stopped drinking and kept fishing. Hour or so later it came again, it was my deceased wife’s voice and she said ” Jimmy God sent me to help you and we are going to make these house calls on regular occasions, but there is one requirement, you must stop drinking, i can’t take watching you drink yourself to death. you do that and we will communicate, we are in a good place that i am only allowed to say all is well, except you. so Mike this is my home and home ain’t a house, ain’t a car, ain’t a building or a box, home is where your heart is. my pension from the service and from my work on main street would allow me a more orthodox lifestyle and if i need money i have a little savings, funny old bum with a savings account. the majority now goes to families displaced from fires. my wife came here to help me and this is my home, wouldn’t do for everybody but it more than works for me. Remember if your heart ain’t there, you ain’t there, follow your heart. we were friends for several years and i was instructed that after his death to take the key to the zip line, unlock it, go to his shack ,more like a small cabin, take a momento and set it ablaze, in memory of his family and i took Jack his dog, a special animal just like Jimmy.”

all teared up i can tell you i knew a man that was lost and found lived a simple life and taught me about ”home”

Jimmy i miss you, i’m home.