Sometimes, in my idiocy, I forget that I'm married to a Southern man. And sometimes, in the hustle, I forget that a piece of our soul is missing. A piece of our soul is in the South still.

My husband's mother, father, brother, and sister (and their families), along with grandparents, nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles still live where Elliotts have lived for hundreds of years. The Elliotts still live very close to where the clan landed originally from Scotland, having remained there for almost as far back as we can trace.

Stuart is a piece of that history. The memories of schools and churches attended, street signs with familiar names, decades of history with friends. The importance of this is not lost of me, and yet, it's not often that we get to interact with that history - now living thousands of miles from those roots.

This past week, Stuart and I had the joy of returning to his "home" to visit with family and friends. Though the trip was quick, the fellowship was sweet, and the rain was heavy and smelt of Georgia. This is a place we both love deeply and are grateful, in our own ways, to call home.

What I cannot capture in words (I'm going to blame jet lag for my inability to string a significant amount of sentences together), I captured in photographs. Come along for trip, won't you?

A piece of our soul is in the south | The Elliott Homestead (.com)

15 years ago, Stuart and I happened to bump into each other in a bar. It was an inconsequential night in both of our lives, until it happened to become the most important of all of them. It was only six short months later that Stuart decided to give up his life in the South - his home, his heritage, his friends, community, family, and that beautiful red Georgia clay. He walked away from it all without complaint to be with me here in Washington.

At the time, he didn't know that we would sprout up a clutch of children, start a homestead, and run a Cooking Community for work. Neither of us had any idea what was in store, but we were ambitious, foolishly captivated with one another, and willing to ebb and flow in whatever way we needed to be together.

There are no regrets, but there are wonderful times of reflection and love for the piece of our soul that comes alive when we are here.