A Mirror and a Compass by Nora Mae

There’s magic here.

How this city holds contradictions…

the noise and the stillness,

the reaching and the resting,

the solitude 

and the sudden closeness of a stranger 

who feels like someone you’ve always known.

Los Angeles is many things to many people:

a mirror and a compass,

an open mind,

the fantasy and the reality,

the seekers and the builders,

the artists and the old souls

those who listen to the stars

because here, they speak back.

There are those who built this place,

whose roots run deep through the palms and the pavement.

And then there are those of us who came here looking for something–

a beginning,

a place to land

among the dreamers.

I’ve found it in pieces:

in hillside mornings,

quiet drives through the canyons,

being washed still by the ocean,

or sitting with a coffee,

watching strangers walk by

each directing, starring, and producing

the films of their lives,

of which we are all each other’s background actors,

interconnected, inspired,

subconsciously shaped by one another

in ways we may never fully know.

This city didn’t raise me,

but it met me when I was ready to rise.

And here, through music, through creation,

through community that feels like family,

I’ve come to know myself.

Home, I’ve learned,

isn’t where you’re from

It’s where you’re seen, and softened, and stretched

It’s what you return to

when the world goes quiet

It is always a piece of home

I carry with me.