Home.

 

What is home?  Webster defines home as ‘the place where one lives.’

Is it a place?

Tim and I are thinking about downsizing.  I look around my house and wonder if I can really leave this place. The thought of moving someplace new doesn’t seem so bad, but the thought of someone else living in this house bothers me.

I shared these thoughts with our daughter, Erin.  She said, “Once your stuff is out, it will be just a house.  It’s your stuff that makes it your home.”  I think she’s on to something here.

My Great-Aunt Beth’s family traveled the world and moved from place to place because of her husband’s job. Nearly thirty years ago I was about to move from my home-town across the state with my husband and newborn son. I was worried about moving so far from home so I asked my Aunt Beth how she did it. How did she deal with moving all the time?

Aunt Beth looked me in the eye and said, “Your home is where your heart is.”

Knock me over with a feather!

She calmed my fears with that one short statement.  My heart was with my husband and son- no question about that.  My home would be where they were.  Easy-peasy.

I think about my refugee students.  They can never go ‘home’ ever again.  They left what was and are starting anew in America.  It’s mind-boggling for me to think of this country’s state becoming so horrible – or this country treating me so badly - that I would ever leave it.  My heart is in America.  But what if…?

Suddenly moving my shit across town doesn’t seem too tough.