"This is my own, my native land!"

And so it is with ex-pats in Bermuda that sooner or later, we usually leave and return home, to our native land. My friend Wendy and I took Linda to lunch today since she is returning to England with her husband in June.

The title to this post comes from "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" by Sir Walter Scott. I had to memorize it in 7th grade and have never forgotten it. Something to thank Mrs. Mosely for after all.

The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
"This is my own, my native land!"
Whose heart has ne'er within him burn'd
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on some foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd and unsung.