-Joss Wheldon
We’re on the 747 returning home from Bangkok as I write this. It’s a full flight and I’ve been thankful for the exit row seat and the distraction of a few movies and magazines. While it will be good to be back home, we find that we’re redefining what that means these days. Of course, there is the physical house in which we live – the bed in which we sleep, the things which whisper comfort to our spirits. We love our kids and will hug them all tightly to us. More than anything (certainly more than the memories or the physical aspects of the place), they define the comforts of home for us.
But now that we’re at an age where it’s appropriate for them to be leaving and eventually establishing separate homes of their own, the whole idea of “home, sweet home” is morphing into new shapes. When you strip away the family that filled your home, you’re left with a driveway, some furniture and maybe a few old pets tottering around. It can be a threadbare way to define home, hardly a safe place in a vagabond life. John le Carre said, “Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.”
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Thank you for writing this Seth. I was just blogging the other day about the concept of home (you can read it at: http://www.gracearrived.blogspot.com if you’d like. It should be the 2nd post down). I think it’s something that happens as we travel. The more we see of the world, the more we also see of ourselves, and it becomes easier to find those comforts of home (as in the heavenly realm) in the people and places around you. Since I’ve been overseas, my parents have sold the house that I grew up in. I’ll be back for the first time next week. I think even a year or two ago this would have been a really difficult transition for me: leaving my “home” and knowing I would never really be returning to it. But my concepts of home have so drastically changed, and I know now that as long as I’m in the same safe harbor of my mother’s arms or my father’s kitchen, it doesn’t really matter where the physical location of home is. 🙂
One of your best…
yeah I agree with Black, thanks
Spot on and very timely. Thanks, Seth.