Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. ~ Matsuo Basho
I felt renewed, excited, and calmly right, and I suppose this is part of what it feels like to be at home. - Frances Mayes
Where is "home"? That is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. Though I am only 23, I lived in one house for nearly 23 years. I was even born in that house. Many Americans move several times in their lives, but I never thought that I would. My mom kept the house after her divorce because she knew I planned to buy it from her eventually. Even when I lived at the sorority for 4 years, I always considered my mom's house in Redmond "home." And then suddenly life changed.
After mom died in January 2006, I inherited the house. I lived there in the spring, when I came back from Africa. But as much as I loved that house, I realized that I could not justify the amount of resources spent on it, nor would that be sustainable. I didn't make the decision right away, but it was a decision made quickly once I realized what I needed to do. It was a combination of things, within a few days. For one, I got the bills for the neighborhood dues and the mortgage. Then a few days later, a girl in my Bible study told us her verse for the week:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Matthew 6:19-21
This verse struck a chord with me. I did not want to be so sentimentally attached to a physical structure that I was storing my "treasures" there, instead of in Heaven - that I was putting my own desires before God's. I didn't want to be so tied down to a physical place that I wasn't able to listen to what God wanted for me - or go where He wanted me to go.
I didn't make this decision irrationally, and it was done with a lot of prayer - both mine and others', so I know it was the right thing to do. However, sometimes I still think about how things might have been different. Especially when I talk to my friends in Eastern Europe, where even the possibility of owning one's own home is often only a dream. When people there ask me how I could have sold my house, it's hard to explain that things are just different in the US. It makes me think a lot about how and why things are different in different places in the world.
In the end, I am left with the thought, "home is where the heart is." In that case, it is not confined or limited to a physical place - be it a building or a city. And I would rather have my heart be where God wants it than just in a place where I feel comfortable - where things might be easy.
I have realized that I am truly content at this point in my life, wherever God takes me. I feel very lucky that Seattle is the place I get to live in when I am in the US. I also feel very lucky that God is taking me to other places, and that he provides me with the things and the people that I need when I am there. Most of all, I am grateful that God has given me amazing friends who make me feel at home in Seattle, Croatia, or elsewhere, and who stick with me even when I am half a world away. That is the real blessing.
A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles. ~ Tim Cahill
