This is my home:
But really, so is this:
This was my home:
And when I sold it to move to Nashville, I thought I had lost home. In some ways, I’ll confess, it still feels that way. Mainly because that beautiful couch is in storage and I miss the warmth of that sunshine coming in on the rocking chair.
I guess I gave up that home for this home:
And it was a trade I would make again. For sure.
But this home has been there a long time:
Even when this is my home:
So what is home? I thought it was that red couch living room in 2006. But I also thought it was my parents’ living room in 1986. I also think it is this living room I’m sitting in as I type.
Maybe it’s all three.
It’s my family. It’s my friends. Home is the friends that become like family.
Home is my kitchen table. Home is my guest bedroom.
Simply, maybe home is just where your…. oh no…. it can’t be true.
CHEESE. ALERT.
Home seems to be where my heart is.
[UGH. I hate that one billion times more than you do.]
Let me restate that- Home is where I’m good at being Annie.
Like here:
I think this move to Nashville has taught me something I’m not sure I would have learned anywhere else. The truth is that I have a lot of homes, a lot of beautiful places (and people), but in the end,
Jesus is my home. The one that will not change. The one that makes me the best Annie. The one that safely holds my heart.
Where is your home?
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My friend Elizabeth asked a few of us to write about home, so head to her blog to see what some other folks are saying about home.
love it
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Since I really am homeless I am going to claim Sevilla as my home since that is the last place I unpacked my suitcase. Plus I had a toothbrush holder.
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Home is where your heart is…so true.
I’m looking forward to that city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God!
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Annie,
I too am one of many “homes” and you’ve captured so well how that works, and what makes a place home. No, not what, but Who!! He makes each home a blessed place!
Shaunie
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Cute houses!
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Oh! Home is where I’m good at being me. I like that SO much. Thank you.
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Sounds like I’m throwing out the Jesus card, but I’m being FORCED to learn right now that He really must be my home, bc Prague SHO aint gonna feel like home for a long long time.
“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek a city that is yet to come.” Heb 13
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First of all, thanks for making me cry. I was already on the verge these past few days and this did it! But I think it is a good cry because I am going through this same feelings since moving to Omaha. I still call LOTS of places “home”…Dublin, Athens, and even here! I am also learning that it is in Jesus. Thanks Annie!
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Can I tell you how excited I am that I get to see your current home and make that guest room MINE for a weekend????
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Pretty sure you just ripped a page out of my journal that I wrote yesterday in my favorite tea shop. I’ve thought about home a lot lately…I’m a nomad right now basically, but I have so at home and at peace in the last couple of months. Even when I was on the road, I would see old friend, or meet new ones, and I’d feel like I was having a wonderful home coming.
But, here’s another cool train of thought. I read a devotional the other day talking about how Jesus is suppose to be our home. How we are suppose to find rest in him. So I got to thinking…if God was a house…what would that be like? I would totally get breakfast in bed in day
What would YOUR house look like?
And end rambling comment. Hope you are doing well. Let’s hang soon. Come to MN?
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Cheese factor, maybe, but home really is where the heart is. A house does not mean you have home, unless there is love and laughter there. And home is the Holder of my heart, too. Always a joy to read your blog!
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Annie-
God called me to leave Nashville and move to Texas two years. My mentor is a 40-something South African woman who God called from South Africa to the States to mentor young women. So I asked her a few weeks ago, “Have you found in living a life for the Lord- going wherever He tells you to go- that nowhere- or the new places He calls you to- it just doesn’t really ever feel like home- your old home doesn’t feel like home anymore, and strangely, the new place doesn’t either.” I’ve lived in Texas for 2 years and still so many pieces of it don’t feel like ‘home.’ Her reply reminds me of your blog post. She said, “Yeah, you really find your truest home is in Jesus. And you find it’s in the people whom you love, it’s certain places that touch your heart, it’s experiences. In this sense, it’s actually richer, deeper, and more meaningful.”
It’s kind of all a very odd feeling, I think, but at the same time, there is no safer place to be, yeah? Blessings to you, Annie- may we keep to the journey!
–Beth
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Annie, where was that last picture taken at? It’s amazing!
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“Home is where I’m good at being Annie”
I just had that discussion with my mom on the phone this morning. I was thinking back on my recent visit to see a dear college friend in California. I commented that being with Jen felt so much like home – even though I’ve never lived in California.
And…because I felt so much like the Janice I didn’t know existed still – and the one I really am most comfortable with and am good at being.
Home for me is also lots of places, and with lots of people! (which, I’ve realized makes me always feel a little bit homesick for somewhere or someone not currently near me!)
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Both times that the plane came in over the rocky shore to land in Glasgow with the greens and the blues and the grays and the low clouds, I took a deep breath and this overwhelming feeling of “home” flooded over me.
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I also really like the bit about home being the place where we are most “us.” Well done.
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So very true. Having just made a major move myself, that question comes up often in my thoughts.
And in the end, I answer it the same way you did.
Thanks for sharing.
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I always say, home is where my parents happen to live this year! They move a lot, so I’ve never been attached to a “house” but our stuff always goes with them, so it feels the same wherever they live! It’s really about them anyway!
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I love this….even the cheese…because it is so true…home is where we feel ok to be ourselves.
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Annie, I loved this post…I have lived in over a dozen places in the last 31 years…and each one became home…and I left each “home” everytime we moved on…a part of my heart was left in each place but the Lord has always shown me just what you said…Jesus is MY HOME!
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