As a kid, I thought home was where you lived all your life. I couldn’t imagine home being anywhere, but Brookfield, WI. It was pretty much all I knew growing up. As an adult, I moved a lot. I was never in the same home for more than 1 year, I moved to Virginia and my parents moved away from Brookfield, WI which I thought meant that I would never really feel at home anywhere anymore.
But that was not the case. I felt at home in my parent’s new home in a new city. I felt at home in my new husband’s parent’s house. I felt at home at all of our family functions. I felt at home in each of the homes that my husband and I lived in (and we lived in a lot of them). And then my husband got a new job and we moved to Brookfield, WI from Virginia. Yes, I was really going home.
But that was not the case! I didn’t feel at home there because all of our family was now back in Virginia. That was when I discovered that home is where the people are that love and support me unconditionally. It has nothing to do with the city or the building.
And now that I have 4 kids of my own, I hope that my kids feel that no matter where I am or what house I’m in, they will feel at home.
This post is my contest entry for the new movie, Away We Go.
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I remember my ex husband telling me years ago that his home was where I was. I have just emigrated and have been feeling "like a lonely little petunia in an onion patch" for a while despite my new husband's attempts to cajole me with daily gifts and spoiling and as much love as he can deliver. I try and overcome the feelings of being lost by reminding myself that home is indeed where I am, that I make my residence my home, that I am the mommy bird and need to create a good nest or home for said new husband and daughter. It's a different thing to build one's nest in terrain heretofore unexplored but it's quite an adventure when you look at it from the point of view of the feeling of home being more of an internal than an external thing.
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