Sorry to all of my readers out there for the long delay between posts. I've definitely not lost the drive to update this blog, but life can get very busy.
There have been a number of different small issues that have cropped up and stolen all of my available leisure time. With the snow system that has just recently blown through the region (with another on the way), I ended up getting stuck at work. I was able to get to work just fine, but then the snow just dropped and arranged me there. So I had the pleasure of spending the night alone in a hotel room. While this might be nice for most people, I'm not one for boredom or solitary. With the solitary, I was able to really put together my thoughts about home and the significance of a place to go home to.
I suppose the thought truly germinated from a few weeks back. I was attending a Celebration of Life for a friend's grandmother and I realized that it was at the same location for that friend's wedding reception. This building was used to not only celebrate the happiness and birth of a burgeoning life together, but now it celebrates the memories and happiness of a life well lived. Then we fast forward to the previously mentioned stay at my job's hotel room and the heartache of being in this room alone. To make matters worse, I then went to visit some of wife's family to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. The person who owns the home has a military suppose, so the family has to move again.
Listening to the hardship of packing up, again, and moving her kids to another place, especially when they have a nice house that they've made into a home, really brought this all home for me. In the literal sense of the word, a house is a home. But there is so much more to a home than just a location for shelter. The emotions and memories that we create suffuse the walls of the home and create a place that constantly bind us together. The physical structure that comprises a house takes on a metaphysical element. It's a nice trap to get captured in and it is part of why owning a home is such a big deal. The ability to have a space to create unrestrained memories can be a heady tonic.
My own home is one that has no physical location. I've been married for six years. I've lived with the woman that is now my wife for almost nine years. The memories that we have created together are what I consider home. So sleeping in a hotel bed doesn't fill me with wishes to sleep in my bed at my building of residence. However, sleeping in a bed that is away from my wife, not being around my children to kiss them goodnight, not hearing the cat creeping around the room or hallway in the middle of the night, and especially being away from the soft sounds of a house full of sleepers during the night, those are things that make a night long and make me homesick. Being on the road with my family, whether the reason is good or bad, is the best road trip, in my opinion.
Until next time, dear reader.
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