Hearts and Home........

It’s very odd to be away from home like we have been for 6 weeks. It’s always amazing to me that “some things never change” and home is like that. Not only do we walk back in on the same carpet with the same furniture setting on it, our old comfy bed waiting on us, our favorite TV channels, the same dirty spot on the baseboard, the same pictures on the walls and the same windows with the same view, but it’s more than that.

It’s a familiarity of ourselves reflected in where we are. I’ve seen bums living under an overpass who may only sleep on a cardboard box and use a fire pit to cook in, who appear to be “at home”. It is their refuge, it is where they return to at the end of the day. It may not be fancy or even clean but it’s their own cardboard box.

We were eager to attend our Church service this morning as we hadn't been in nearly two months. It was as we left it, warm and inviting. Our Church family has been carrying on as usual in our absence, the pastor is still preaching, there are ongoing heartaches and joys to share. Ever changing and unchanging we felt at home.....

When we’re in our camper we are also “at home”. Temporary as it is, and used primarily for recreation, I have made the effort to decorate it as well as I can with pictures, pillows on the couch, soft furniture, a coffee pot that’s always on & flowers on the table. I keep the fridge full of foods that can be prepared at a moments notice, chairs that are comfortable to set in, and a hook for our hats & coats, or yours. I have real dishes in the cabinets instead of paper plates, throw rugs, and small tables to set your coffee cup on..... It is home when we’re away from home, but when we return our real home awaits us.

Our refuge, our place to shut out the rest of the world, our possessions, a place that has a place for unread magazines, a special little candle, my favorite rocks, our funny footprints across the carpet, and a special room full of a hodgepodge of items I don’t know what to do with. You’ll find dirty shoes by the back door, an unmade bed, paper laying around where I can get to my constant lists of “things to do”, laptop computers on the coffee table & beside my chair, and a stack of correspondence laying out on the desk. I have a vase full of dried “weeds” in the dining room simply because I like them and picked them the week we moved in 10 years ago. I have coasters setting around that everyone (including us) forget use so there are rings on all the side tables. There is usually a dirty skillet on my stove top in the kitchen and most always you’ll see a pen & paper, a flour sifter and spoon that didn’t get put away laying in a fruit bowl on my island that never seems to get fruit put in it..... There’s a loaf of bread on the counter instead of in the bread box, bottles of vitamin's in the bread box along with some rubber bands, broken pencils and chip clips, and it seems there is always a jar of something setting out that didn’t get put away, and the windows always need washed.....

It’s not just a building, it’s home, full of memories, messes and times to come, full of us.

They say “Home is Where the Heart is” but it’s even more than that..... Since the heart has many chambers I have many homes......We’re happy to be back where we can dream of leaving again and returning again only to dream some more about leaving again. God willing our home will always be the place to get away from, the place we are when we’re away, and "here" to come back to.