A tribute to home... Wandering around Washington D.C. with my stuffed animal dog (won from a claw vending machine in an Alabama gas station) in my purse (dog's name is Pav)...Washington Monument to my right, American flags billowing in the breeze!
Some say,
“Home is where the heart is”
... Others might agree, “Mi casa es su casa”
“Home is where you hang your hat”
“Home is where you can scratch where it itches”
“Home is not where you live, but where they understand you”
Many great poets, writers, theologians, and scholars have given their perspectives on what home means to them. The connotation of home is different for every person you ask... Perhaps home is different for every person. I think so.
You see, I have been living in West Africa for almost four months now and with the passing of Thanksgiving and the onset of Christmas I have begun to feel a yearning for home. After careful consideration of my own interpretation of home I have concluded,
“I don’t have an interpretation! I really don’t know what home means to me.”
In fact, just the other day someone asked me,
“Where do you call home?”
I looked that person in the eye and honestly told them,
“I’m not sure.”
Here I am a girl on the run who has been stopped in her tracks by the idea of “home”. So today’s question is,
“What is home?”
My family is scattered up and down the east coast of the United States, I am loved and welcomed into more homes than biologically required, yet I have no clear idea of where to call home.
My medical diagnosis is wanderlust (o.k. maybe not medically diagnosed...but you get the idea), ask anyone in my family, or better yet, ask my mom. For as long as I can recall I have had a spirit and sense of adventure. Not adventure in the sense of bungee jumping or rock climbing, but more like adventure in the sense of... I want to learn Spanish, I want to drive across the cross country, I want to live in Africa. Some might call this the “the travel bug” or just plain insanity, but to me this itching desire became my reality about two years ago when I made a decision to leave behind one life and stepped into another.
James says,
“You’re nothing but a wisp of fog. Catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing.”
Translation, LIFE IS SHORT. It is difficult to think about life as a vapor or wisp of fog when you are only twenty-four years old... but I know that James’ words are inspired and true. So I remind myself of his words as I live this vapor of a life.
I am definitely not quoting scripture to condone leaving one’s commitments. Impulsivity is not a good decision making tactic. I have learned through bad decision making that all decisions have their consequences, some are great, and some are guilt ridden. What I am trying to argue is my serious case of wanderlust.... I think you get the idea now.
So as I type this journal entry I am mentally evaluating my own thoughts about home and how “homesick” I am feeling (like I have written in the past, typing these messages is therapeutic).
How can someone miss something without specification. Can someone actually miss an idea? Humans beings miss each other, our family, our relationships, our pets, our routines, but can a human being actually miss an idea... a thought, a hope, a dream, a notion? My answer is,
“Undoubtably YES!”
“Sure, I miss Diet Coke, Target, and my Mom, but what I also miss is the idea of home, the place of my birth, the only place I have ever lived for twenty-four years... I miss my home!”
By human standards, I would say that homesickness is not uncommon. I mean, don’t we all feel an emptiness sometimes? A tinge to move, experience, or live outside of ourselves.
As a follower of Jesus, I would say that homesickness is unfailing. Here is why I make such a bold statement. As a believer in the divine and sacrificial life of Jesus Christ, I have pledged my life to follow His teachings and example, but Jesus did not only speak and teach about this life... in actuality He spoke more about His kingdom to come. To me this is the root of my homesickness. No matter where I travel or where I land, I will undoubtably feel a sense of homesickness. Think about it, the system on this earth we live in is broken, and until it is restored we will never feel at home. No matter where I am I will always be a visitor. My life can help make a difference, I can help in the restoration of this earth, but until He fully restores this world I and every other human living on this planet will be “homesick”. Right now our planet is a beautiful labyrinth of love, joy, pain, sorrow, and adventure...So just imagine how beautiful it will be when it has been made whole again, flawless, perfect! Sometimes I close my eyes to try to picture such a harmonious world...my imagination only touches the fringes of His reality.
Lord, Help me to play a part in Your restoration... Lead me through this “homesickness”. I want my life, although only a wisp of fog, to count for something!
Home...
Still wondering yourself? Here is what others think about the idea...
It matters less to a person where they are born then where they can live.
Turkish Proverb
Home is a place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.
Henry David Thoreau
Everyday is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
Matsuo Basho
Where thou art, that is home.
Emily Dickinson
We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
Winston Churchill
Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.
John Ed Pearce
One may make their house a palace of sham, or they can make it a home, a refuge. Mark Twain
I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.
Maya Angelo
