what is 'home'?
Times of physical transition elicit wonderings about the nature of "HOME", I guess. Is 'home' a space? a way of feeling, a form of comfort? A friend recently told me that she has observed that our family is at home with eachother and with God, and that she thinks 'houses' are not as relevant to our sense of 'home' as they are to many others. I had never contemplated such an idea.. and I'm not convinced that its accurate. But it sure got me thinking about what home is to me, and wondering what it is to others. I'll share a few thoughts here - and I hope you'll post a comment or two about what home means to you.
I've often told Bren that he is my home... (in particular that safe place on his left shoulder that bears the imprint of my head sleeping on it.)
The song Be Thou My Vision - weird that if finds its way into this post. But I've heard it a few times recently, and its a form of home to me.. it reminds me of my life's purpose, and it has been oft-repeated at many important times on the journey. Early in my faith experience, it highlighted some concepts I hadn't previously understood. It reminds me of my truest home, perhaps.
What does HOME mean to you?
I just read two great books for Valerie Rempel's class about the church and this concept of home. I recommend them:
ReplyDeleteBarbara Brown Taylor's Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith (Episcopalian / Anglican perspective) and
John Koessler's A Stranger in the House of God: From Doubt to Faith and Everywhere in Between (Evangelical perspective).
jennica; welcome here! miss you often! I will copy these titles into my books-to-read journal!
ReplyDeletek
When I think of "home", I think of....
ReplyDelete...the rolling prairie hills near my farm, places that I have walked, run, driven, biked, motorbiked over the years of my life.
....a favorite hymn - My Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine is a hymn that marks "my place".
...a recent psalm of note - Ps 84 includes images of place and also of journey. "A place near your throne"
thinking of you
LB
With all the moving for us in the last year and 2 more to come in the next few, home has a had a very different meaning for me. It has not been the dwelling we have lived in, but the happiness I see in my kids wherever we have lived. I do identify some "things" with home, like seeing our couch in whatever house we have lived in gives me a sense of comfort, but the people sitting with me on the couch make it home.
ReplyDeletemy sisters are my home...
ReplyDeleteKaren