What is Home?

I spend a lot of time thinking about moving and home. Nine years ago we moved from Maine to South Carolina, and a year later we moved into our current home. We moved kids to college and now we are watching from a distance as the first son is moving to Brooklyn for the next leg of his education adventure. The youngest is in transition from living at camp in VT to getting ready for his college junior year.  While we aren’t in boxes ourselves, my heart still picks up the excitement, the fatigue, the fear, and the adventure when there is a move is in the works. 

I love moving. Well. I will admit that the work of a move is quite a lot. But packing and purging, lifting and arranging (and re-arranging), discovering new grocery stores and bars – the idea of it makes me very happy. After seventeen (I think? I ran out of fingers) moves, the spirit of adventure surrounding a move outweighs the work, the heartbreak, and the challenges of settling in. Even the moves that accompanied pain and brokenness have brought me a gift. 

When I was a kid and we were facing a move, it was my favorite thing when my mom would sit down and draw out a rough floor plan of the parsonage that would become our new home.  The wonder and adventure represented by a floor plan sketch is a primary way that I experience Home. 

Home. 

When you think about home, what do you imagine? Do you imagine a floorpan? A neighborhood? A holiday celebration? 

Is home where you and your family have lived all your life? We visited friends in Fort Wayne last week, and that is there experience. And as they lovingly pointed out the cool things to see in Fort Wayne it was through a lens of long-term love and experience. I loved being in their experience of their Home – Fort Wayne. (Also the food scene, downtown, ballpark, and zoo are OUTSTANDING.)

Is home a group of people that you may or may not be related to? How do you remember and experience home as a family group? 

My experience of Home is something that I carry from place to place. It is a sense of belonging and creativity. I spend a lot of time thinking about design and organization in my homes – which I think is an external representation of the work that I do to figure out how I will fit in and approach a new adventure. 

 Is Home what you get or what you make? 

Is home a destination or a process for you? 

What is most important about Home to you?