Home

When you hear the word ‘home’ what typically comes to mind first for you?   Is it the childhood home that you were born and raised in?  Is it the current house that you reside in?  Is it the town that you grew up in or even the state?  Where exactly is one’s home?  What exactly is one’s home?  Is it a physical dwelling or location or is it more emotional or psychological in its origin?

Growing up in North Carolina, I heard Charles Kuralt’s “North Carolina is My Home” so much that it is practically engrained in to my inner being.  Had you asked me ten or fifteen years ago where I considered my home, I would have adamantly said the house I grew up in (and still live in) in Wake County, North Carolina.  The home that I never envisioned leaving or moving away from.  Wake County was my true home and where I then foresaw myself living and dying.  (What’s that saying – Carolina born and bred and when I die, I’ll be Carolina dead!)

As I sit here and ponder writing this, I realize how much life has changed from my childhood days.  While I do still cherish my homestead where I grew up and still do consider home, I don’t foresee myself spending the rest of my life there.  Things have changed.  Society has changed.  The landscape has changed.  Wake County has certainly changed.  And while change isn’t necessarily a bad thing, sometimes change causes us to lose the true taste and feel of home.

 

So, while I’ve been pondering the reality of one day leaving Wake County, it made me also question is my homestead what I truly consider my actual home? Yes, it is my physical home, but is it my emotional and psychological home? 

As my Mother has quite often said “a home is what you make of it” and that is so true.  You don’t have to live in a grand mansion for it to be your home; our home is ultimately what we decide for it to be.  Additionally, I tend to look at it in a slightly different limelight in that home is also where your heart is but home can also be anywhere that you want it to be.

I tend to feel that I have numerous homes or numerous places where I’ve left of piece of my heart or feel a longing towards.  When I travel, I know when I enter a foreign city or town that it may not be my biological birth home, as that will always be Raleigh, North Carolina, but some places that I have been to, I just feel so relaxed and comfortable that I associate it as being like home.  Those places where you feel most comfortable are places where we can be our true selves, let our guard down, relax and enjoy life.  It may not be where your physical dwelling is or your home based on your roots, it could just be some simple place that made an impact on you or some place you deeply cherish.

I know a lot of people who feel that their home is the country from where their ancestors came from.  In particular, this one individual who was born in the United States but is of Irish ancestry, feels that her true home is Ireland. In her instance, while she does love the United States of America and the state she was born in, she feels a close affiliation to her ancestral home, which is absolutely perfect because her home is either where her heart is or wherever she so chooses it to be. 

I don’t believe your heart has to exclusively be in one particular domain.  Some people choose to believe that, and that is fine.  While I do know that my birth roots are in North Carolina and I do feel it is my home, I also feel that areas in Tennessee are my second home.  I’ve been to several places in Canada, and I honestly felt so at ease and welcomed there, that it almost felt like home. As a child, when we were on vacation, I used to have a longing to come home after being gone for so long.  Nowadays, it seems the reverse has transpired.  While I do desire to return to my home after a long journey, if I’m in a location where I feel just as comfortable, I don’t want to leave because I feel as if I’ve left a portion of myself behind or even feel as if I'm leaving home.

Over the next few days, dig deep and think hard about where your true home is.  While I know Wake County, North Carolina, is my earthly home, when the good Lord returns, He will ultimately take us to our true and real eternal home.  While we can have numerous homes here in this present world, where will your eternal home be?  You have two choices – Heaven or Hell.  The choice is yours, and I encourage you to choose wisely because you don’t get an opportunity in eternity to have multiple homes.  Think long and hard and make the most important decision of your life, but ultimately, in the end, I hope we are sharing the same home.