Five Minute Friday: Home

Linking up with Lisa-Jo again this week, where in her words:


This is the time of the week when we steal those five minutes while the kids are fingerpainting the dining room table, the neighbor’s dog has stopped barking, or the microwave is popping some corn to splash down some thoughts on paper.

In just five minutes.

To paint a verbal picture. To just write and not worry if it’s just write or not.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in. 

GO:

It’s funny how the whole idea of ‘home’ morphs over time.  As I look back over my life, I’ve lived in about 16 different houses, most of which were also ‘home’ to me at some point in my journey.  Everything from a rented house in LA when I was 4 to a favorite home in Glendale between the ages of 12 and 18 to a furnished apartment in Santa Monica when I was a newlywed and finishing my senior year at UCLA to a 3 bedroom concrete block (to fight the termites, don’t you know) house in Choma, Zambia where we taught school for a couple of years, to each of the homes in which we raised our family (3 different ones) to the home we’re in now, many miles from where we spent most of our married life.

But as time passes, each one becomes ‘home’ for a while.  And each one carries a piece of my story.  And each one holds  happiness, growth, pain, anger, celebration, gratitude, beauty, family.  The one we’re in now is perhaps my very favorite of all.  It feels the most like us – whatever that means!  And we have loved these years in Santa Barbara.  But it took a while to be home, that is for sure.  30 years we lived elsewhere.  THIRTY YEARS.  So this place took a little gettin’ used to!  More small town, fewer shopping experiences.  Looser idea of schedule – too many beautiful places to meander off to.  Too much money in one rarified strata and way too little in the foundational one which makes the place run, the workers at the hotels and the restaurants and the kitchens and the schools.  

But now it is home.  The place where we live.  The place that holds our heart.  The place we are so very grateful we belong.

STOP

Glimpses of home…

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Comments

  1. What a lovely, colorful home you have created for yourself. Thank you for sharing these right images, so lovely! Bless you!

  2. What a beautiful, cozy home you have! I love it! And you are so right – every place we live has a part of our story and is a part of our “home.”

    🙂

  3. I love these 5-minute musings. It’s lovely to hear your stream of consciousness style. Your home is gorgeous – and I can imagine that the feeling you create of cosy warmth must travel with you wherever you go.

    Sarahx

  4. “The place that holds our hearts”
    I love this.
    Beth

  5. Thanks, friends, for stopping by and for your kind words about our home. Yes, we love it. And yes, home is what you create wherever you land. It is a traveling grace indeed.

  6. I like these Five Minute Fridays… am tempted to participate except that some of my uninhibited writing wouldn’t be suitable to post! This week’s topic prompts so many thoughts I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to stop at five minutes. Your home and garden are lovely. They say our homes usually reflect our personalities and I suspect that’s true of yours. 🙂

  7. “But as time passes, each one becomes ‘home’ for a while. And each one carries a piece of my story.”
    I like how you put that… each place becomes home, at least for a while, and a part of us.
    Your current home is just beautiful…it looks peaceful, and comfortable.
    Blessings, friend.