I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this week about the idea of home, what it means and how we define it. Some of that has to do with moving into my own place here in London after nearly three months of living with the Frey’s and some of it has to do with some other stuff going on right now as well.

The Oxford dictionary first defines home as:

The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. 

that’s great, kinda boring but it’s a serviceable definition. I can say that as I was living with the Frey’s the second part of that definition very much applied. I can not stress enough how blessed I was to live with that family for the last 2 1/2 months, they opened up their home to me for much longer that any of us would have initially anticipated and I never felt like they minded. (In fact they made a point to let me know otherwise). We laughed together, ate together and cried together and it’s a time that I will always cherish (they’ve been informed that they are now stuck with me).
However, the first part of the definition was missing from that time. Living with the Frey’s was never the permanent solution to where I would live during my time in London and I spent a lot of time and energy while I was with them looking for somewhere else. The act of searching for somewhere or something else often has the effect of impacting where we are now, it prevents us from truly experiencing the depth of those situations or places. Obviously I had to look for somewhere else to live but evidently I’m getting all deep and philosophical in this post so we’re just going to go with it.

As I was looking through all of the ways that Oxford defined home I came across this one, and I think that it’s my favourite:

A place where something flourishes, is most typically found, or from which it originates.

I love this definition for two reasons.

The first is that it talks about our origins, where we come from has a huge impact on how we are going to view even the idea of home. The homes we grow up in shape and define us, how we take life on, the choices we will make and what it is that we will place value on. Our homes are where we learn life’s first lessons and where our parents teach us and nurture us both spiritually and physically. 
I know that growing up where I did – a small mill town on the West Coast of Canada – had a huge impact on who I am today. 
The landscape of the Westcoast has given me a love for the more rugged type of beauty found in God’s creation and a feeling of wholeness that comes from being near the ocean. 
Watching my father make furniture and work on our homes has given me a love for building things and working with my hands. For making the spaces I live in not only beautiful but comfortable and not being afraid to have fun with them. 
In our home my parents instilled in me a love of travel, and a value for education. They gave me the opportunity to explore the world we are so lucky to live on and used those travels to better shape our understanding of the people who live on it. They taught us to have compassion for those that aren’t as fortunate as we have been and to try and see beyond the stereotypes of their situation and really see them for who they are, just other people. 
And on and on it goes…

The second is the idea of flourishing. The place where something flourishes. When I read that I felt some peace because to me that idea of home doesn’t tie into geography. It isn’t restricted by a building or a city or even a country. It speaks into the fact that if we build our idea of home around God than we can flourish anywhere. That isn’t to say it would always be easy or comfortable, probably far from it, but it does give you the freedom to grow into a new idea of home. A flower flourishes from good soil, light and water, in the same way we flourish based on how we take care of ourselves both spiritually and physically. I would also argue that who we surround ourselves with will impact whether we feel at home or not. In short it is more about our relationships, those we love and surround ourselves with, what and who we invest our time and energy into, that will make us feel at home and will help us flourish much more that any four walls and a roof ever will. 

That being said….

I do have a new house with walls and all that stuff, and it’s pretty cute. Want to see it?

  I hope you’re all doing well, thanks for listening to my ramblings I’m sure it will be back to regular programing next time.