A Georgia Monday – Longing for Home

GEORGIA FOLK AND FARM LIFE - I woke up in New Jersey this morning and drove into New York City to catch my flight south. I’d been up this way to help announce the world-famous New Jersey Airshow and Night Spectacular. What a show it was—world-class aviators filling the skies, and when the sun went down, a night program that lit up the heavens. We even had a little fun swatting away those “alien drones” that had plagued New Jersey this past winter—once and for all.

This is my busy season, traveling coast to coast for some of the largest aerial events in the nation. I like to say I’m evangelizing one of America’s greatest exports—aviation. Right up there with rock-n-roll, aviation is our coolest calling card, and one of the best careers a young person could ever pursue. I love telling those stories of flight, of daring pilots and endless skies, because they’re really stories of the American dream.

But here’s the rub—I also live on a farm. That means I’m a completely torn person. I love what I do out on the road, but nothing beats home. For those of us blessed to call Georgia home, we’ve got it all—mountains, beaches, and wild spaces in between that feed not just us, but the world.

So here I sit, wedged into a crowded New York airport where there’s barely room to pour a cup of coffee. Around me, travelers trade stories of bursitis, daughters-in-law, and a million other troubles. That’s fine—it’s New York, after all, the place where dreams first landed and took root. But my dreams? They’re waiting back home.

Tonight, Lord willing, I’ll be on my porch in Georgia, listening to the tree frogs sing their lullaby and the wind in the pines chase away the noise of travel. Tomorrow, I’ll be up early, refreshed and ready for another day at Fair Chance Farm. That balance—the skies and the soil, the roar of jet engines and the quiet hum of crickets—that’s my life. And truth be told, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

What about you? Do you ever feel torn between the work you love and the place you call home?