Home!

I was thinking about my mother this week who died just about two years ago. You know how thoughts go, you start in one place and end up in another.  Last year we visited England and my home town. there is that word, HOME. It got me thinking about what home means to me.

Firstly, following the deaths of my sister a few years before my mother, and my mom, my home town did not feel like home. My brother lives like I do in America. It really surpirised me to think about this feeling this week that the town felt empty, even with all these people walking around, some of whom I knew, but no longer did I feel that connection, a reason to be there that I used to when my Mom was alive. It felt strange.

I used to travel a lot for my work before I became a Realtor, and always looked forward to coming home. Home is more than a house, it is where your family is. When you buy a house, you make it your home. Through the events, the decoration, the memories, the parties, the friends, the neighbors, etc. you craft a story, or rather a history.

When you arrive home, there is a feeling of being able to relax, a feeling as the English like to say that the drawbridge is up and we are safe within the castle. You create the energy that is in your home, be it good or bad. There are certain points in a journey home where you start to feel that gravitational pull of your home. Sometimes it is still a long way off, but it just feels like you have arrived as you pass a particluar spot or landmark and you begin to relax and unwind from the stress of the journey, you start to think about home and how relaxing it will be when you walk through the door.

We have moved country, moved towns, and moved houses many times, not as many as some but a good amount. Friends have always asked me if I felt I had left my home behind. My answer was usually, home is where my wife and boys are. Whether the house was big, small or in between, owned or rented, home was where we all gathered, shared our stories of the day, could lower our guard and expect our family to listen and come to our aid when we needed it, give that hug or receive a hug depending on the need.

So make a home, and enjoy the benefits, it is much more than just living in a house.