Where is home?

Home is where the heart is. Anon



Being an emigrant I have at least two homes. When I'm here, it's there and when I'm there, its here! It confuses other people but not me. But truly, where is home and what does it feel like? Is it a feeling or is it a place?

I believe its a part of us that we carry with us even if it has its reflection in more than one place in the outside world. Home, the word itself, feels good. How often we use it to express how comfortable we feel in a place or with a person. I felt at home when I found my church after a long search, yet it was a place I had never been before. Not a description we associate with somewhere we call home but nevertheless true.

So why is it that we can feel at home in a strange place or with someone we just met. There can be many explanations, past lives, similar backgrounds, personalities types, but to me its seems a great arguement for Oneness. Seeing ourselves in another, the qualities that are universal; love, enthusiasm, kindness, creativity, wisdom. Interesting how we identify and gravitate toward these traits but dont see the less attractive ones or if we do we shun them. Yet we are just as likely to have the negative trait as the positive! Maybe if we owned up to these traits as well we could be less judgemental of others and love someone even though they have a mean streak or are insecure, unfair or small minded. Is it right to withold love if someone shows up less than perfectly in order to have them shape up to our standard? Well OK we dont have to associate with them but sometimes we do, because they our in-law or our own brother! Is it not better to soften and realize they are a product of their own decisions and reactions to their individual pasts? Can we let them off the hook? Can we let ourselves off the hook? Probably not a bad starting point. Hmmm?

That little ramble got me far from home, if to a good beginning, as here I sit right in the heart of my home. Luckily I'm at home with questions and not at sea like some, who can only find their land legs with solid facts. Where is your heart at home?