Home, Sweet Home
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. John Howard Payne
Home is not a place; it’s a feeling. Cecelia Ahern
A house is made with walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Home is the nicest word there is. Laura Ingall’s Wilder
I want to go home. Not the place, but the feeling. F. Scott Fitzgerald
Home is the heart’s nesting place.
Home is wherever I’m with you.
Home is where the heart is. Pliny the Elder
Where Do I Call Home?
If the popular quote, “Home is where the heart is,” is true, what happens if your heart is in more than one place? This question has occupied my thoughts these past months. Sometimes I’m not sure where “home” is.
Half a year ago, my husband and I moved to a new home 700 miles from the town in which we were born and raised. It was a tremendous step, but it meant being closer to our children and grandchildren. There are so many things I love about our new home; it’s in a beautiful neighborhood with sidewalks, we have found a great church with friendly people nearby, we have connected with excellent physicians, and we have experienced seasons. Proximity to our grandkids is ideal; they live some thirty miles off. This journey typically lasts thirty minutes to one hour thirty minutes, depending heavily on Nashville’s traffic. Much better than the usual twelve hours. There are so many good things, but it doesn’t feel like home yet.
We have traveled back to our hometown a few times since we moved, for doctor’s appointments and legal appointments as we transition. Being where people know you and everything feels familiar offers a certain comfort. Like many places around the US, our city is bursting at the seams. The place we once knew looks nothing like it does now. And so many people we loved are gone. It’s hard to think of it as home anymore.
Where My Heart Is
A huge chunk of my heart is in Lakeland, Florida, where I was born, raised, married, and became a mom and grandmother. It holds most of my memories. It’s also full of friends and favorite familiar spots. So, is Lakeland my home?
But then, the Nashville area holds a huge chunk of my heart as well. Our son has lived there since 2011, so we have visited many times. Now, I have a daughter-in-law plus two small grandsons. My daughter and her husband live just three hours south of our new home. We have seen them more since the move, which I love. When will this feel like home instead of merely a destination?
For that matter, Anna Maria Island, Florida, holds a small chunk of my heart. It has been my go-to beach my entire life. My mom and dad spent their honeymoon there and later, when they had a family, took us there. We owned a home together there for more than a decade. There’s nothing like sitting on the balcony watching the sunset.
Since the mid-1980s, Western North Carolina has held a piece of my heart. When my brother attended college in Boone, my parents bought a condo in nearby Sugar Mountain, then later built a log cabin. My husband and I enjoy spending the summers here, escaping the Florida (and Tennessee) heat and embracing the slower pace of life. It almost feels like home.
The last weekend in July, my extended family migrates to South Georgia for our big family reunion. My grandparents met and married in Thomasville, Georgia, and my mother was born there. We have deep roots in that part of the US, and although I have never lived there myself, it always feels like going home.
It’s understandable why I have mixed feelings about my home. When I am in Lakeland, Florida, it feels like home, yet it doesn’t. When I am in College Grove, Tennessee, it feels like home, yet it doesn’t. The same thing for each of my places: Anna Maria Island, Foscoe, NC, and Thomasville, GA. Right now, nothing truly feels like home—except for anywhere I am with my people (and by people, I include a six-year-old doodle; he is part of our pack).
My Forever Home
Maybe it’s my circumstances or my age that make me feel this way. I know that none of these places are my forever home. They are all temporary. The truth is that the feeling of home I long for is somewhere in the future.
Yet God has made everything beautiful in its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV
In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also. John 14:2-3 WEB
How about you? Have you ever moved from somewhere familiar? Did it take long to feel at home? Do you long for your forever home? I’d love to know.
Kim Wilbanks 