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January 25, 2018

Home Sweet Home – Where Is Yours?

31 Comments/ 157/ 1

What does home mean to you?

Over the years I have had a lot of homes.  Ask my family.  Their address books are filled with addresses for us.  In total if I include all of the temporary housing and moves in my lifetime I have “lived” in approximately 24 different locations.  Now if you divide that by my age in years I have averaged 2.38 years in each place.  I guess that is not too bad.  A lot of people move.  A lot of people stay in the same town and sometimes the same house for most of their lives.  Not me.

When I think of home I don’t necessarily think of a house.  It is more of a feeling.  It is where Chris is.  It is where the boys used to be.   It is kind of just an emotional feeling and not a physical place. There is a song that I love by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros called Home.  The chorus is:

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I’m with you
(2x)
La la la la, take me Home
Baby, I’m coming Home

That is what I am talking about.  You have heard all of the phrases.

  • Home is where the heart is.
  • A house is made of walls and beams, a home is made of love and dreams.
  • Home is not where you live but where they understand you.
  • Home is the place where it feels right to walk around without shoes.
  • Home is where you can say anything that you please because they do not listen to you anyway.
  • There is nothing half as pleasant as coming home again.
  • Home is where you hang your head.
  • Home is home, be it ever so humble.
  • Home is an invention upon which no one has been able to improve.
  • Home is where the house is.
Home to me is a feeling.
Not the brick or mortar or cedar siding.
Not the square footage or the furniture that inhabits the dwelling.
 It is the place where I feel comfortable and safe.
 And that is always where my husband is.  Always.  Without fail.  I am blessed.
 Yes, I have had a lot of different “homes” but always with the same man and to me that is what it is all about.

What do you consider home?  I would love to hear!

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31 Comments

Leave a comment
  1. Benardchinua
    January 25, 2018 at 06:15 am

    Home is where my God dwells. I stay with him.
    Chinua….

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 25, 2018 at 07:53 am

      I love this, Chinua! I agree and thank you for your comment today.

      Reply
      1. Benardchinua
        January 25, 2018 at 10:30 am

        Welcome. Let’s share more. I liked your post.

        Reply
        1. Beth Ann Chiles
          January 25, 2018 at 10:47 am

          Thanks so much. I checked out your blog and it is so inspiring! Thank you!

          Reply
          1. Benardchinua
            January 25, 2018 at 11:55 am

            That encourages me to write more. My pleasure, Beth.

    2. priscillaking
      January 25, 2018 at 10:53 am

      Chi? Igbo? Nigeria?

      Reply
      1. priscillaking
        January 25, 2018 at 10:55 am

        (For U.S. readers who may be wondering: I’ve read a bit about the Igbo–an ethnic group, not to be confused with “igmo”–concept of Chi as a sort of personal “God,” Higher Self, Inner Light, as somewhat distinct from Chukwu as the Almighty God, in Nigeria. I’m wondering whether this is what @Benardchinua is referring to.)

        Reply
  2. Jena
    January 25, 2018 at 08:20 am

    Thanks for a good post. I agree with Home being a feeling and I also appreciate that we’ve lived in the same place for almost 20 years so we’ve had time to make it ours. Benardchinua had the bes comment!

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 25, 2018 at 09:41 am

      That was the best comment from Chinua, wasn’t it? Love love love it.

      Reply
  3. susi_snaps
    January 25, 2018 at 08:45 am

    I feel the same way. Don’t get me wrong, I love our house but home to me is where my family is.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 25, 2018 at 09:40 am

      Yep. Grateful here as well for a “house” I love but home is where the family is.

      Reply
  4. Mama's Empty Nest
    January 25, 2018 at 08:51 am

    Like you, I’ve had a lot of addresses although my last count at 18 is less than yours. We’ve been stationary for the past almost 20 years, but still I feel like this house is just my temporary home – my real home is in heaven, I believe. During my childhood, I only lived in two different places just a few miles apart. So when I think of home, my thoughts are about the home I grew up in (my parents’ home which was my grandparents’ home before that) and that feeling of being surrounded by my family no matter where we live. I loved your post today. Years ago, I wrote a three-part series on “home” in my blog, so it’s a topic dear to my heart.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 25, 2018 at 09:40 am

      Home evokes so many thoughts and emotions, doesn’t it? I love reading how everyone views the term . The common theme is love and that is the cornerstone of any home. Of course our heavenly home is never far from our minds but while we are on earth it is good to have a place or a feeling that gives us warmth and comfort.

      Reply
  5. dawnkinster
    January 25, 2018 at 09:26 am

    I’ve moved a lot too. Husband? He’s only lived in one house growing up, moved to one house as an adult and now we’ve been in this house for 25 years. I have a hankering to move, but when I look around I know I should be grateful to be in this very nice place that we’ve worked on for 25 years. It’s almost done now! 🙂 So we should stay. Still…..

    “Home” for me would be anywhere my folks are…so I guess that would be in my heart.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 25, 2018 at 09:38 am

      Love your answer. Yes. That is indeed where our home is –where our loved ones are and that means many are in our heart. Thanks for your thoughts.

      Reply
  6. McGuffy's Reader
    January 25, 2018 at 10:34 am

    I went to eleven schools growing up, moving many times. So, as an adult, roots were important to me. We have been in this home for thirty years. There is one final move that we plan when Bill retires. Our spiritual home is n the UP. My poem, Brockway, explains this:
    Brockway
    Annie at ~McGuffy’s Reader~

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 25, 2018 at 10:45 am

      Lovely. I totally understand the need to feel rooted and your poem is beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
      1. McGuffy's Reader
        January 25, 2018 at 10:50 am

        Thank you, Beth Ann. Now, I get your updates in my WordPress feed.

        Reply
        1. Beth Ann Chiles
          January 25, 2018 at 10:51 am

          Yippee skippee!

          Reply
  7. Virginia
    January 25, 2018 at 10:54 am

    Love that song! Used to listen to it a lot. One of my girls gave me a hand towel that says “Home is where your mom is.” I love that, but I think I would say that home is where there is love and welcome and acceptance. Home is where comfort is because those things are there.

    Reply
    1. priscillaking
      January 25, 2018 at 11:02 am

      Yes…home is where your Mom is (to some extent) as long as you’re a child with an active Mom, but eventually you have to *be* the Mom, or at least the Dad or Aunt or something similar.

      Reply
    2. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 26, 2018 at 07:40 am

      Love your response, Virginia. Home is exactly all of those things.

      Reply
  8. priscillaking
    January 25, 2018 at 11:00 am

    “Home is where the cat is”…was the title of a book I didn’t buy at the time, and then it was something I went around saying mournfully after I’d been converted to cat-person-ness and my Queen Cat had died.

    Seriously…my parents crossed the continent five times before I was ten years old and told me to use “home” to refer to lots of different places, but I’ve *always* felt, without a doubt, that home is the one particular hill-and-hollow in the Blue Ridge Mountains where my White American ancestors have been for going on 200 years. Not the neighboring hill, not the neighboring hollow. My ancestor picked ours for a reason.

    I’m not the mystical type, but when I’m not at home I usually notice a vague feeling that I ought to be at home.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 26, 2018 at 07:39 am

      Home is where the cat is makes me laugh but it is kind of true in my case. Home is where the cats are is more correct. I love that you equate home with one particular hill and hollow in the Blue Ridge Mountains. That has to be some special place.

      Reply
  9. Minnesota Prairie Roots
    January 25, 2018 at 11:08 am

    I’ve moved only twice in the past 35 years. To me home represents a place AND the people who fill that space. And I will always consider the prairie, where I grew up, to be one of my homes. That home shaped me into the person I am today.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 26, 2018 at 07:38 am

      Your home is definitely the prairie. No doubt about it. 🙂

      Reply
  10. Val - Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids
    January 25, 2018 at 01:06 pm

    Home is where my family is. When my parents divorced when I was in college it really made me think of what home is. I felt like I didn’t have a home and that made me even more excited to start my life with Ian so we could build a home together.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 26, 2018 at 07:37 am

      I can imagine that that was a difficult time and that you felt like your home was no longer there. but now you and Ian have created a beautiful home with your children and they will grow up with such great memories. Thanks for stopping by.

      Reply
  11. Laura weers
    January 26, 2018 at 01:23 pm

    How very true. A home is about the memories of the of the people that have had a loving and caring place to share their best and worst of times.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann Chiles
      January 27, 2018 at 10:57 am

      Thanks, Laura. You are exactly right about that. Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply
  12. Josh
    January 30, 2018 at 12:29 pm

    Exactly… I never thought about it before but, exactly. We’ve lived in a lot of places and all of them were home to me for different reasons. Except the ninth circle of hell, in Minnesota. That place never felt like home. Happily we only lived there two years.

    Reply

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