that special place....

do you have a place that you escape to? a place that is just your place? a place where you can let down your guard, not worry about what people think, say or do? a place that you don't want to run into anyone you know.... a place that you might not want to take others to? a place that is so familiar to you that it allows you to dream... to remember... to meander....

my friend, emma, just wrote about her special place... it was so descriptive that i longed for that place myself.... i wish i could 'return,' though i've never been there myself....

and then i remembered one of my own places that i used to have while growing up.... my quiet place was in the horse barn, curled up in a corner, smelling the mixture of sweet hay and straw, feeling the gentle breath of the horse on my face, hearing the grinding of the hay in the horse's jaw, and knowing that i was safest there.... a place where i was understood... a place where i could dream.... a place where i could cry... a place that i could get away....

it seems like it's been a while since i've had a place to escape to... no horsebarn to sit in.... i miss that.