There’s a well known song that has these words in the chorus:
Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home
I don’t believe them!
Home is the place where you fit in, and it fits around you.
Whenever I am away from home I spend much of my time trying to find things and checking where things are. At home I don’t have to think about where I’ve put my keys down; even if I can’t remember where I put them I know the places where to look. When I’m away from home they could be anywhere.
I’ve spent enough nights in hotel rooms to develop a twitch every time I leave a room – “Where’s the room key card? Where’s my wallet? Have I got everything?
At home there is an unspoken routine. We don’t have to be constantly talking through what we are going to do next, for most of the time we instinctively know.
We know the signs of who’s in and who’s out when we are home. We have three cars in our house, these days, but the drive is only two cars wide. If everyone is in there is always one car blocked in, but that’s not a problem because at home we know who is going to be needing there car next so we know where to park.
Home is the place where you know which draw to look in for which clothes. You don’t have to go through all of the drawers trying to find your socks.
At home you don’t have to think too hard about what clothes you are going to wear.
Home is a place of memories. Memories of evenings with friends around the table. Memories of chocolate chilli roulette. Memories of huddles of young people around a fire pit. Memories of Christmas mornings and birthday teas. Memories of newborn babies entering the place where they will build their own library of memories. Memories of saying goodbye as those babies, now grown, set out on new adventures of their own. Memories of tears and disappointments too.
Home is a privilege and a joy. It saddens we to know that in this world of conflict and refugees so many don’t live in a place that they can call home. But I also have a hope that one day this world will be swept aside and we will move from this home to another home where there is no more conflict and strife, a place where everyone is at home.
Graham Chastney 