Home

Home is what’s familiar; it’s soft and warm and uniquely able to bring you peace at your core. 

Home could be found in a person

or multiple persons all in the same place at the same time 

or the simple steady wag of a tail, happy to see you always; no questions asked.

It’s recognized in the push of a door and the smell that hits you right away; brewing coffee, cooking soul food, lightly scented candles, or a clean load of laundry. 

It’s the sounds of loved ones laughing, yelling, singing, or simply having conversations that roll on and on, in a kind of effortless dance. 

Home is a well-worn hallway, lined with photos of relatives old and new; consistently lit regardless of the time of day, making walking down memory lane an easy journey to take.

Home is the ding of an elevator, sliding doors and dozens of familiar faces greeting you, some raising their mug-clad hands to wave as they babble into the phone, others standing and looming by your desk, discussing the weekend plans and that great new restaurant you just have to try. 

It’s a friend’s hug; an overstuffed couch crowded with way too many people; everyone shouting their guesses for whatever ridiculous game they're playing on that chilly Friday evening. 

It’s a large bowl of buttery popcorn, making its way down the row of a full theater, as the long-awaited new release lights up the screen at a midnight showing. 

Home is a feeling that settles into your bones and takes up a comforting residence. It’s a deep breath that feels soul-cleansing and reassuring. 

It’s unquestioning, unassuming, and unconditional- even if only temporarily. 

Home is where the harshness of reality can be drowned out for a few moments in hearing the bubbly giggles of the baby you’re holding. 

Someone somewhere hit the mute button on the demands and pressures of the outside world, and suddenly you can breathe. You can fall asleep on the couch in the middle of the show you picked out; you can raid the cupboards, tell the stories everyone has heard a million times, and sit anywhere you like- even on the kitchen floor, in front of the fridge, eating ice cream right out of the container. 

Home is uncomplicated while instilling confidence in your heart that this place, this moment, these people - they know you, they welcome you, and they see you. 

Your home may feel far away at times, whether separated by thousands of miles, by countless minutes that have ticked away, by restrictive schedules and illnesses, or by the destructiveness of relationships that didn’t work out in the end. 

But 

If you close your eyes long enough, if you allow that particular un-dusted corner of your mind to be swept off- you can see it, can’t you? 

In uncertain times this corner will be here - untarnished and clean. If you can, even for a brief moment, feel the small piece of the puzzle that built you click into place, you can then let yourself go home again.