Home Is Where You Are (No Matter Where It May Be)

There are some of us who grow up in our local towns and may not even venture out more than 50 miles away to live, work, and even travel beyond what has always been known. There are others who spend their lives in transit for the pleasure of new discoveries or for familial or job obligations. Then again, there are those who could live in a few different locations over the course of their lifetime for whatever reason that has brought them from point A, B, and to C. Whatever our stories are for why we live where we do, how we got there, and what keeps us rooted within one place over another is as unique as we are individuals.

The thing about being home is that it’s not the house, the people who we live with, the walls, the décor, our personal affects, and the accumulation of stuff that gets collected over the years that defines us, but it’s the home that we create inside of ourselves that does. Life has a way of building us up or sometimes tends to knock us down. Our foundations can be shaky and unstable, but with repair, care, and maintenance become stronger than ever. When it’s time for a personal renovation—whether by choice or by circumstance, we continue to evolve. Our exterior may change—our weight, style of dress, age, and hairstyle, but it is the inner “updates” that render us either better or worse than before. That is in fact what we can control and decide how much or how little is going to stay the same and how much will become different.

It doesn’t matter whether we decide to pick up and go on a whim, make careful plans to organize a move, or find ourselves in a new residence and place with resistance. Whether we are near or far, in a new city, town, or country one thing remains—us. We ourselves are what creates the home and where it exists. It’s our inner worlds—our interior designs, walls, and windows that reveal what it is we want to show to our guests that we allow in and what we decide to preserve for our own personal comfort. When we find ourselves so unbearable that we’re constantly on the go, engaged, connected, plugged-in, buried in work and others, we neglect our home. The wallpaper starts to deteriorate, the garden becomes overgrown, the furniture gets covered in a layer of dust, we may trip over stacks of mail, and get lost in the shuffle of papers that has piled up. Before we know it, we don’t even recognize it and get overwhelmed of how are we going to manage, clean or reorganize and if in fact there is actually the will do so.

But when we are at peace or at least in a better place of acceptance of who we are and what it is we’d like to accomplish in order to continue our personal growth, we are always home. We are present where our feet are and there is a feeling of safety and security within the shelter we provide to ourselves. We appreciate who it is we are and what it is that we’re made of. We can navigate ourselves with ease and actually like finding tranquility within the internal sanctuary that we have created.