When You Leave a Place

This is one of my very favorite things I have ever read.  It was written by Ariel Gore in her book Atlas Of The Human Heart.

“When you leave a place, its best if it’s raining. Not pouring, but not just drizzling either. You want fat drops that fall on your cheeks like tears. it’s best if it’s early, too, the tail lights and porch lights and streetlights and station lights all begging you to stay just one more day.

When you leave a place, its best if you’re hungry. A girl should never travel on a full stomach.  It’s best if you’re tired, too, still wrapped in the dreams of sleep, oblivious to gravity and the heaviness of your own body.

When you leave a place, it’s best to take as little as possible – ideally a single change of clothes, the jewelry on  your body, the money in your pockets, memories safely stowed in your secure imagination.  Never pack more than you can comfortably carry across the Himalayas on foot, because you never know where a road will take you. It’s best not to bring along anything you care about either.  You’ll lose it, anyway.  Give it away before you go.

And when you leave a place, it’s best not to cry.  If everything is as it should be, the sky will do your crying for you.”