If there’s one main thing I’ve been thinking about a lot while I’ve been in Uganda, it’d be the concept of “home”. For the first time in my life really (maybe second, I felt it marginally after my trip to the US in Feb/Mar), I feel pretty homesick… without even knowing what home means. I’ve been chatting with a few friends about it too.
Is there a people or a place to belong to? What does it mean to be grounded in a community?
Erwin McManus writes, “Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive. Home is about love, relationship, community, and belonging, and we are all searching for home.”
I’ve always been so independent and unattached, and in many respects I still am, though I am now in this strange place of wanting to feel at home somewhere, wanting to feel that I belong somewhere. There is this shift happening in my heart… where will it lead? Is it possible to have roots that go deep, without being resident in one place for sustained periods of time?
“… people write their addresses in pencil…”
Your shout: What does home mean to you?
emmsy 
Home is where you centre. It’s where / what / who you come back to. It might not be exciting, dramatic, revolutionary. it’s just, well, home. It’s warm, it builds you up for your next adventure, it’s where you experience the real you – good bits & bad bits! It’s where you are accepted just for being yourself; you don’t have to offer anything, prove yourself, be successful, project an image of yourself. And yet, inspite of that, home is where you want to be the best person you can possibly be, give the most to the people around you.
In the words of a much greater poet then me…..
I’m sittin’ in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination
On a tour of one night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one man band
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Everyday’s an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger’s face I see
Reminds me that I long to be
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Tonight I’ll sing my songs again
I’ll play the game and pretend
But all my words come back to me
In shades of mediocrity
Like emptyness in harmony
I need someone to comfort me
‘HOMEWARD BOUND’ by Simon & Garfunkel
Whenever I think of home I think of where mom & dad are… and the cats…and my mom’s cookin and that great coffeeshop. But, I also can FEEL home in different places (like China, Thailand, Uganda – I have had those moments in all those places!). Good thoughts here!
That McManus quote is pretty spot on for me…………..
I would say that this last year and a half has been a discovery of a new home, home with Cherith which has been awesome, very natural and just fun. Its about much more than that though …………..
its hard to define
You probably know what I’m going to say but I really believe that home can be more than one place. I don’t feel any more or less at home in Glasgow than I do in Belfast.
My ‘wee bro’ Andy was annoyed at me on Sunday for saying ‘going home to Glasgow’ but I also say ‘going home to belfast’. Belfast was the home I was born into but Glasgow is the home I’ve chosen to have right now.
You’re here (usually) and Fran, Cam, Cra, George, Roobs, Lyndz etc. and that’s my community at the moment. My Glasgow family… maybe that’s it. Home is where my family is and by ‘family’ I also mean friends.
H x
I would agree with Hollybunch, at the moment I have 3 places I would call “home” (I’ll leave you to work them out!)
Looking at them though one is home mainly because of the people there, another mainly because of the place and all three have some combination of both added together with memories of significant events that have happened there. There are also some places where I’ve felt “home” as Rose describes it and would love to go back to, even for a short while. It can get pretty messy sometimes but I suppose the “home” I most look forward to being in at any particular time is the home where I feel God has called me to be, whether it be for rest, for action, or whatever else he has in store!
thanks for all the comments folks – its great, and very encouraging, to hear all your stories. i guess like holly I feel like ‘home’ is about community, the people who inspire me… it just so happens that for me those people are all over the world… not so sure home is a defined geographical location as opposed to a mish mash global community of friends for the journey.