Buechner on Repentance

I came across a great partial explanation of "Repentance" in Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner: "To repent is to come to your senses." It seems to me that this is exactly what happened to the prodigal son. In the far country, after losing all his money, and being stuck with the lowly job of caring for hogs, he came to his senses and returned to his father. The NRSV backs this up, translating the key passage from the gospel of Luke as: "when he came to himself."