There’s No Place Like Home
Traveling for the past forty-seven years has been routine for our family. Our five children can say they have “been” to all forty-eight continuous states. (And a couple have been to other countries!) Now I will admit my youngest has very little memory of his journeys since he was so young, but it was what we did.
It seems when we go on a trip there is usually at least one thing that happens which throws a “kink” into an otherwise wonderful trip. My friend best described a situation that at the time was awful, but almost downright comical in hindsight! She’s on her way home, in the driver’s seat while her husband is temporarily the passenger. She needs to sneeze and realizes there are no tissues; she misses seeing a police officer, which her husband is quick to point out (I assume she might have been going too fast?), she’s stressing because the dog needs to go out, she misses the exit and then promptly dropped her phone in a puddle once she gets out of the car! And then has the sense of humor to say things went downhill from there! Needless to say she was delighted once they finally arrived in their driveway!
I know that feeling of finally reaching home; total relief, exhausted, excited, yet a little unnerved since you are never quite sure what the house is going to “look” like, whether it’s been “tended” to by family or neighbors! My friend said her house smelled like “dirty socks!” Mine…. Usually has an “earthy” smell. It’s like the kitchen sink hasn’t been used in six months and whatever was in the drain composted while I was away! (I’ve since discovered if I have my daughter dump some baking soda and salt in it a couple times a week and run some water, I can eliminate that problem!) Still, there are just little “odors” which attack my senses that are nonexistent when I’m home and taking care of things!
Still, when I place my weary bones on my own bed (since it is usually late when we arrive back), sleep is welcome relief. All else seems unimportant and can wait until morning, which seems to come all too quickly! Then it’s laundry and “house hunting” after the car is unloaded and everything is mostly just “put” in the house. Then there is the matter of mail; first sorting into piles of urgency, with bills that need to be paid promptly on top, and all else into his pile, hers, read further, junk (this is the largest pile) and then “everything else!”
When the moment arrives, about a week later, I am thrilled to finally have all the laundry done and put away, the floors swept and mopped, mail all taken care of and I can sit down and enjoy my “space,” I am indeed very glad to say, “there really is no place like home!
I challenge you this week to consider how very special your home really is. Everyone needs vacation; that time to get away from everyday issues and just relax—and even that can be stressful right now with the COVID ‘thing’. But the place you call your home is really your place of rest, peace, family, holidays, joy, children…..yes, even pain and grief. But it is what keeps you grounded; that sense of belonging; belonging to what is real. Connect with your “home” today, the people, the place, the feeling. Breathe deep, and enjoy!