Tuesday, October 2, 2007

HOME - October 2007

I hate it when blogs go away. I had posted a great entry on Homes to an old blog of the same name at selectablog.com, then went there one day and it was gone! ARGH! So, I start over ... again.

What is a "home". Dictionary.com has 31 definitions under the word "home". I'll go with #2 as my favorite, which is "the place in which one's domestic affections are centered".

For me, it doesn't matter where you lay your head at night, a mansion, an apartment, a trailer, a tent, a lean-to ... house and "home" are two different things. Why lay your head in luxury if there is no home. (OK, maybe once in a while on vacation.) And love can even make a stone pillow feel a little softer.

So, it doesn't matter where you live, but more how you live, that makes a house a home. There is a great sense of 'belonging' or 'fit' in a home. This also allows the concept of home to extend beyond the 'domestic' units mentioned above, to work and social settings. There are 18 cottages where I work, that house the residents. One of them is definitely my 'home', because I belong there.

Many of the Mommy Bloggers out there write about their homes, more than their houses. While I enjoy the occasional "house improvement" (yeah, I know the expression is 'home' improvement) entry, I am more interested in how someone and their family reacted to or dealt with the situation. Human interest, ya know.

One of the definitions I found listed home as "(in games) the destination or goal". After work, we want to go home. If you are like me, after the dentist, you want to go home. After school, kids want to go home ... and then leave their homework there while they go to the mall or to a friend's house. You can always retreat to and regenerate at a home. Homes nourish our souls.

So, how do we strengthen our homes? Have family mealtimes, tell the people in your family that you love them (and mean it), and don't spend too much time on the computer! *lol* (I really shouldn't talk because I owe my house and home and family to the computer. DH and I 'met' online a year before we met in that bus station in Salt Lake City.)

How will you strengthen your home this month? I invite you to leave a comment with your answer! :)

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