figure out where home is

“I spent years feeling like this, wondering if each new place I went would be the home I was looking for. Then I realized that “home” is not something the universe is supposed to give me, a magical place where I’ll suddenly feel I belong. It’s a commitment I make to a place and to a community. I found a place that didn’t feel like home at first, but I decided to make it my home. Every day that I spend here strengthens my commitment. Every day it becomes a little more like “home”.”

I just came home from Canada about 2 days ago, from LOVE Camp. LOVE camp is 1 week where the organization I am apart of [L.O.V.E Leave Out ViolencE] has all regions of the organization come together in Haliburton, Ontario and spend a week together. This was my second year attending and both years I have come home in tears having to part ways with the amazing people I have met and become family with so quickly. They are one of my homes, but not my only home.
I am also at home with so many of my friends and my amazing boyfriend. It seems that I went from homeless to having more then i could hope for.
all i can think is how lucky am i to have so many things that make it so hard to say good bye, and so amazing to return to.

I’ve figured it out, now I have to figure out how to get there and afford to live there.

My DH and I have been struggling with a sense of “where is home?” We don’t live near our families, and we’ve ruminated about that incessantly for the past ten years. I moved 600 miles away from my hometown after college. I’ve been getting a bit more homesick as I’ve seen my parents get older. My DH’s family, one by one, moved away from him (it’s not as bad as it sounds…his mom, his brother, and his sister all live in the same town in the Southwest).

But we’re coming to terms with the fact that that little saying is actually true: Home is where the heart is.

For me, I’ve come to appreciate the fact that we’re making a living here, away from our families. Who knows how we would be patching together our means in the same vicinity of our families?

The thing that struck me this summer is that he and I are not that far away from our families. We can and we do pick up the phone and call them. We can and we do correspond via e-mail. We can and we do visit them as often as we can afford.

I’m going to write another entry about this, when I have a bit more time to describe my profound realization, that I most recently have figured out where home is!

Edit on October 25, 2009:
“The best way to honor your parents is to do well in your own life and reach your goals.” from Amy Dickinson of “Ask Amy” in column on Octber 24, 2009.

Chicago feels like home
New York cause its my favorite place in the world but I haven’t been everywhere in the world
London cause my best friends and a ton of folks I love live there

I’d say home is where ever most of my closest friends are

“home is where your heart is”

its probably one of the cheesiest, most cliche lines ever. but its true. i’ve always believed that your home is with the people/person/thing you love.

i think the biggest mistake people make, when it comes to this topic, is thinking that home is a place. home doesnt involve a location.

“home is not where you rest your head at night, home is where your love can rest”

ive, in a sense, lost my family, my friends, the only one who seemed worth loving. ive lost everything. i dont really have hope for finding what home is to me any more.

maybe one day i can find home on my own, for now at very least, ive lost hope that home exists for me.

Maybe it’s where ever the hell I want it to be.
I’m not sure yet.

as much as I try and try to figure this out, I am torn. My home has always been where my family is, but I love where I am, yet I miss the comfort of home

that Olympia, WA is home. Been here since 2005 and can’t see myself ever leaving!

After 26 years of travelling it dawned on me that home is not a place you find, but a place you make.