{"id":3114,"date":"2015-04-14T10:24:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T17:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=3114"},"modified":"2016-02-16T13:30:36","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T21:30:36","slug":"theres-no-place-like-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/theres-no-place-like-home\/","title":{"rendered":"April 14, 2015 – Home *is* where the heart is"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Listen to this post:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/20140414-Post.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

I\u2019ve been following Kelly Flanagan\u2019s weekly posts. He\u2019s a dad, husband and therapist in the Midwest and he writes insightfully and inspiringly about marriage, family and life in general in his blog<\/a>:\u00a0 Untangled:\u00a0 tell a redemptive story of your life. now. \u00a0Last Wednesday\u2019s post was:\u00a0 Home is where the grace is.\u00a0 He told of an experience with his young son in a homeless shelter and how \u201chouse\u201d and \u201chome\u201d are not the same thing.\u00a0 This struck me as, for a long time, I\u2019ve had this sense too.<\/p>\n

When I was learning French it bothered me that there is no real translation for the word \u201chome.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHouse\u201d is directly translated to \u201cmaison\u201d but the closest translation of \u201chome\u201d is \u201cchez____.\u201d\u00a0 For example, \u201cchez nous\u201d means \u201cour place\u201d in English.\u00a0 It indicates the place where we live.\u00a0 But home is not just the place where we return to each day.\u00a0 As Kelly Flanagan says it\u2019s not so much a place<\/em> as an experience<\/em> and that there are many ways to be \u201chomeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is so much to the word \u201chome\u201d that is hard to put words to.\u00a0 More than 10 years ago, when I was first working with my mom in real estate, I helped set up NIZ Realty\u2019s first website.\u00a0 For the home (!) page I wrote something about us and our brokerage that began with this sentence:\u00a0 We come into this place we cannot name, we grow here, set roots here, love others here, we leave it and miss it, always to come back to it\u2026 home is one of the most important values in our lives.<\/em> I was attempting to describe (with my writing skills at that time and with as much depth as was appropriate on a real estate website!) the something else<\/em> that is home<\/em> to us. Most commonly we think of home<\/em> as something that is created in our house \u2013 <\/em>the structure that provides our physical shelter. But in looking at it this past week, I\u2019ve found home all over my life.<\/p>\n

One of the great blessings in my life is that I was born into a profound sense of home.\u00a0 The family that my mom and dad created held a deep place of belonging for all of us.\u00a0 Family – my dad, mom and brothers \u2013 was<\/em> home.\u00a0 I was part of something, in an unspoken, even unconscious way. It just was. It\u2019s beyond being welcomed, or being valued.\u00a0 We were and are each part of<\/em> \u2013 family and home was made up of all<\/em> of us.<\/p>\n

For me, one important way this was lived and fostered was that we ate around a table every<\/em> evening, no matter what else was going on. (Well, except the one night a year when The Wizard of Oz was on TV \u2013 we got to eat with our plates in our laps, sitting on the living room floor – but only<\/em> then.)<\/p>\n

Another accident of birth that has blessed me enormously was to have been born here \u2013 in Marin County.\u00a0 Roaming the hills around Woodacre, in the San Geronimo Valley as a kid, I had no idea how spectacular this place is.\u00a0 It took becoming an adult and returning after being away, to see the beauty of these hills and valleys. I feel very fortunate to have been able to return to Marin after my divorce and buy myself a little house – before it became too expensive to do so.\u00a0 It\u2019s wonderful to still have home be where home has always been – and to have it be such a special place.<\/p>\n

Yes, I know Marin has changed.\u00a0 In the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s it was largely middle class. It has become quite affluent, which has changed the make-up of its residents \u2013 their attitudes and expectations.\u00a0 Regardless, there are many kind and good people \u2013 people who care about others and our planet \u2013 who live here, making it what it is.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been a home-maker.\u00a0 I hung a sheet that had sea shells all over it on the concrete wall of my room the year I lived in a dorm in college – to give it some life and softness.\u00a0 Though just up for a couple of weeks, I had a five foot Christmas tree that holiday season, lights, ornaments and all.\u00a0 Our room became a gathering place because if it. \u00a0My Paris apartment and a little place sub-let when I left my first husband \u2013 regardless how temporary, I need to claim the spaces I live in as mine. Flowers, candles, something familiar to hang on the walls – makes me home. \u00a0It\u2019s also instinctive to invite people over – welcome them as if they live here – cook for them, feed them.\u00a0 There\u2019s something about hospitality that creates home for me.<\/p>\n

In looking at this, I see now these other ways and places I\u2019m home too:<\/p>\n