Home Is Where You Hang Your Hat

Hat at Home

I was talking to a dear friend yesterday who is a transplant. Used to live in one place and now lives in another. This friend was talking about how some of the old friends always ask,"When are you coming home?" Not for a visit, but to stay. The response was, "I am home." In the conversation we were sharing some hurts and frustrations in life, and in that simple sentence I heard something neither one of us expressed the entire conversation. Certainty and peace. I have lived many places, but I have had few homes. Home is where you hang your hat, but it is also where you feel at peace. It is where you have community. It is where you feel you fit in and belong. Everywhere else is a bed and a place to live, but it is not home.

There is nothing wrong with those other spaces. In the places I have lived that are not home or used to be home but no longer fit, I have people I care about and spaces I love to take part in, but they are not home. I do have a home of sorts that I do not live in yet. I used to think that home was tied to something else or someone else, but it was not. It was tied to me. For the first time in years I felt not like a stranger or an alien, I felt at peace and like I fit. 

Our homes will change from time to time. In my childhood I had a home. In my adult life I have had two places that I can think of that I truly called home. They are no longer and I can never go back and that is okay.

I am not at home right now, but I know where home is and I hope to hang my hat there. 

If you are home, stay there. Know that what you have centers you and comforts you. Know that the places you used to call home are no longer and that is okay and there does not have to be struggle in that. If you are not home, be patient and find a way. It is a journey worth taking. I have heard the peace and the certainty of one who says, "I am home."

It's beautiful.