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Sunday, March 09, 2014

What is home?

I have been thinking a lot lately about home, and what really is home?  I feel a different sense of home in many different places, so I don't think that "home" is an actual place.

I feel at home when I am in my own home, for sure.  When my family are around me, when I am home alone, or when the house is rocking with a party of teenagers, they all still feel home, in my own home.  So in that sense, "home" is where I live.  It is the shelter that is over my head.  It is the place that I go to when I am done work.  It is the place that I go to when I am at some of my work.  It is a PLACE.

Dad and Grandma
I feel at home when I go to visit my Dad on his farm.  I never lived on that particular farm, or in that house, so it isn't the place there that makes me feel at home.  I think it is the feeling of being with my Dad.  For most of us our parents represent the feeling of home.  It is kind of a comfort and security thing, right?  It is kind of the same when I go to the in-law's home.  It is a FEELING OF LOVE, knowing that you are loved and accepted there for who you are. 

Old Chief Southern Alberta
I feel at home when I go to my family's old homestead in the mountains.  I went there several times a year as a child, and even to this day I love to go there.  This particular place is where the theme of this blog came from.  It is full of many happy memories.  Memories of playing in the creek, memories of hiking up in the hills, memories of riding in the back of trucks as we took trails that led us up higher into the hills, memories of bears, boys and baseball, are but a few of the memories that give me the wonderful feeling of home.  It is MEMORIES.

I feel at home when I am 1000 miles away, in the company of my sister, or one hour away with my other sister.  I can be on a vacation with my family or at the zoo with my nieces and nephews, and it is home.  It can be anywhere I am, as I am surrounded by family or people I love.  It is the PEOPLE you are with.

Home is so much more than just a dwelling place.  It encompasses everything that is in our world that offers us that feeling, those memories, and those people we love.  For each of us, home will be different things.  Maybe your home didn't have a dad, maybe it wasn't a happy place, maybe your childhood wasn't full of great memories, but you can create them now.  You can build a home full of love.  You can build a home full of people you love.  You can fill your life full of happy memories.  It is up to you, but it is can be done.  You can create your home wherever, or whenever, or however you want it to be.  Make it a great one.

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