From Autumn Into Summer

One suitcase. Endless days of summer. Goodbye Autumn.

Leaving the southern hemisphere, just as winter is biting at my ankles, seems like a dream come true. But the nightmare is there too. How will I ever fit everything I need into one suitcase? One suitcase that will see me all the way around the world? One tiny little bag with endless clothes, shoes and toiletries?

I would like to pack a whole lot more as well - a little bit of home to take with me wherever I go. A little bit of my comfy bed, a little bit of all my most treasured friends, a little bit of my mom and dad, and all my wonderful family members. A little bit of my brother, who always gives the most solid advice. A little bit of all the work I get here - because what if I can't get any there? A little bit of our endless blue-sky summer days, and a little bit of this big city I live in, where I love to spend those summer days. A little bit of the bush, of African skies, of the warm, grassy smell of the veld, of the haunting call of the jackal. A little bit of where I've spent most my life, of my old tree-lined suburb, my schools, of the walk home. The tangy, tasty, meaty smell of a braai. I'd like to take a whole lot of little bits, a case full of old tiny glass jars, each with it's own smell, taste and memory squeezed inside.

I would like to take it all. But where would there be space then, for all the new smells, tastes and memories? Where would I fit all the new experiences, if I'm so fill up on the old?

Seems I'll need many more suitcases.