Home Is Where The Heart Is

It’s seems appropriate to be writing about “Home” and the significance of our homes for Columbia Home. We’ve all heard the saying “Home is where the heart is.” I’ve learned over the past several years, that this not just some cliché but actually true.

I think sometimes in this world of bigger is better and keeping up with the Jones’, we lose sight of the fact that the size of our home doesn’t matter and the physical things in it don’t matter (note to the hubby – this doesn’t mean the new chairs come off of our what to buy next list 🙂 ). What’s important is really the love of your family and friends and being able to open up your home and share with those you love. It’s about the spirit inside that home.

I’ve moved more over the past five years than I have in my entire life. Downsizing to an apartment after a divorce and leaving what I thought was my last home, moving to a new city, renting a house, moving into my new hubby’s house and then most recently, moving to our new home.

After moving from my large house to an apartment after the divorce, I was never happier. Quite honestly, simplifying felt great. And after moving again recently, I was reminded once again that things don’t make a home — people do, love does and family and friends do.

I am thankful for my home because I can share it with family and friends. I can open it up so others can feel that love. When people walk into our house, I want them to feel at home . I want them to feel the love. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a trailer (I grew up in a trailer and had more love there than you could imagine), a huge house (been there, done that) or a cozy apartment (been there, done that too), it matters about what you do in that home.

Now, don’t get me wrong  I like to decorate (and come to find out my relatively new hubby has opinions…yes, real opinions on decorating too. That topic might be written about in a later blog post). I like an orderly home with things in their place. I like nice things, but what I’ve continually been reminded of is that the bottom line is that our home is really wherever we are. It’s wherever we share our love, laughter and joy with the people we love. The bricks and mortars that surround us mean nothing without the love.

I was reminded again of this when I moved into my husband’s home two years ago after we got married. It was his home with his first wife, Sarah, who died five years ago. It was their home, but I also knew for the kids it would have been too much change at once, so I moved into Jason’s house. Many of my friends thought I was crazy. And I knew it would be hard on me, but I never knew just how hard. I hesitated to change things  as Sarah had put so much love into that home. I would look out our window, which backed up to the cemetery, and I would see Sarah’s grave. I eventually learned to be at home because that’s where my heart was.

It was really hard, and at times, I would find myself staring out the window at Sarah’s grave feeling the great love she had for her family, which at times almost became too much to bear. I could have made that house ours, we had so much love, but Jason and I eventually agreed that we needed more space and needed a place to call our own for our new beginning. So, we found a new home – a home that we are filling with as much love as we can with our family and our friends.

I would encourage each of you to be thankful for your home. Not the bricks and mortar and the physical structure but rather the love and spirit that comes from your home. Because that’s what makes a home. And at times your home might change, and it might be something you never anticipated from a bricks and mortar standpoint, but in the end, all that matters is that home truly is where the heart is.