Other times I've blogged about home include:
• Almost three years ago I said a lot of what I still need to say today
• Nine years ago an October Freewrite about home with quotes from songs about home
• Five Minute Friday :: Long Linkup
• God brought me out into a spacious place; God delivered me because God delighted in me. Psalm 18:19
It's been a long time and a long distance. Because I can't stop longing for home. Glancing back, I knew I'd come out in a broad place before long. Did I estimate the length of long? Not out loud, but if you'd asked me, I'd have suggested three or four years.
Three or four years earlier, at the invitation of a long time close friend, I'd made my way from the intermountain west to the east coast. After our phone conversations, I believed I'd be starting life over near her. Well, that didn't work out for even a few minutes, but I wistfully remember the feeling of heading for home I had as I drove across prairies and cities and hilly places.
The home we long for can mean returning to a previous town, city, or dwelling, or journeying toward somewhere for the first time ever. Will I know if I'm there? It feels to me that home must include a physical house or apartment, a roof overhead. But isn't homecoming what we really and truly long for? I mean, people who quote Phillip Phillips' song Home, "Just know you're not alone; I'm gonna make this place your home."
Deep in our hearts, we long for the hugs and the smiles. The shared meals. Affirmations of our dreams, our calling, our gifts and preparation. Encouragement for our longing to use our talents and abilities. We long for and we need somewhere and someone to come home to at the end of the day, whether the day has been disappointingly short or agonizingly long.
Home is a spacious place. Space to breathe, to reach out, to grow, and to dream. A location and a people who take away my lostness, who help deliver me, because they delight in me.
I never really longed for home,
ReplyDeletedid not know what it meant,
and I set myself to roam
with implied intent
to just find a sort of place
where I could rest my feet,
and by God's then-unknown grace
I was arranged to meet
the lady who became my wife
(yes, she stooped to conquer),
and from then, in our shared life
(though I do drive her bonkers)
I have found the very best,
and the goal of my long quest.
I miss family gatherings at Mamaw's house. I miss Christmas morning with my kids waking up way to early spying the Christmas tree. I miss family time at the Christmas Eve Candle light service. But that is okay when they are carrying on and building their own traditions with their family---as they are a long distance away, so I decorate with fond memories as I hang ornaments on the tree, waiting for sweet visitors to come.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post.
ReplyDeleteLoved, "Being lost is worth the coming home."