Where the Heart Is

Where the Heart Is

Home is a feeling you sometimes get in the most unexected places.

When Dorothy declared, “There’s no place like home,” it wasn’t because she was back in Kansas. She had returned to those she loved, who loved her.  Home is not merely a place.  It’s not confined to where we reside.  Home is defined as much by who we’re with as by where we are.  In that case, no matter where we are, if we’re with those we love, we’re home.

This was made clear to me at an early age.  My extended paternal family lived in upstate New York, while my extended maternal family lived in Kentucky.  I spent the first five years of my life in the former and the remainder of my childhood in the latter.  But as long as I was with my parents and sisters, I didn’t care.  Wherever we were together, it felt like home.

Traveling poses a unique challenge to setting up a “home away from home.”  Regardless of the nature of our family trips, whenever we arrived at our destination, my first inclination was to add personal touches reminiscent of home.  The boys would warn, “Watch out.  Mom’s nesting.”  In spite of their teasing, they apparently appreciated the effort as evidenced by their having adopted similar practices.

Acting on the assumption that home is where the heart is, this section explores how, no matter where life takes us, tucked safely away within each of us is the essence of our HeARTful Home.

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