Tags
Arroyo Grande, family, Hawaii, home, Ohio, sisters, Tucson Arizona, Visalia, Wizard of Oz
As our Great Sister Adventure continued, my sister and I were talking today about the whole idea of “home”. Is “home” the place you were born, where you lived with your parents, or live currently? As with many things, our opinions differed, but only slightly.
When asked, “Where is home?” I generally answer with some version of “Home is Arroyo Grande, but I live in Visalia.” When pushed, I tell them I was born in Tucson, Arizona, and being on the desert makes my heart sing. Strangely enough, I only actually lived in Arroyo Grande for seven years — from the end of seventh grade until I finished junior college and moved to attend Fresno State (where my 2-year stay lasted 12 years). Next month will be my 32nd anniversary of moving to Visalia, which is a lovely place to live, and my daughter was born and raised here, but it still isn’t home. Home is Mom and Daddy’s house, or at least the town where that house is. Home is permanence.
My sister — a California girl through and through — moved to Ohio ten years ago. She said for many years it felt disloyal to refer to Ohio as “home”, because Arroyo Grande was “home”. But she finally realized that it was okay to have more than one home, that for her, Ohio was home, and so was Arroyo Grande.
We are both dreaming of making another special “part-time home” in Hawaii. When or how it may happen is anyone’s guess, but the possibility is there. I know that the tropical breezes and warm ocean waters calm my soul in amazing ways, and to have a place to stay for more than a few days at a time would be glorious.
What about you? Are you living “at home”, or are you just where you ended up? As Dorothy said in “The Wizard of Oz”, “There’s no place like home!”
triggershorse 
Thank you for today’s thought. They are always very timely. Please have a blessed day and May our Lord Jesus fill your every need.
http://cchurchchurchblog.wordpress.com/
Pastor/Equipping The Saints
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You are most welcome. Peace to you this day. – Fawn
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I have often mused about this idea. I spent a lot of time trying to forget the place where I grew up as it was not a happy place. I was on my own at 16 and in some ways that little apartment was more home to me than any place I’ve been because it was freedom from all that troubled me. In the past 30 years, I moved close to 28 times…almost once a year until I finally got married and settled into a house with my husband and kids. After all these years I finally feel at home. My life is here, and my family, my children. I love it so much that I actually choose to be home rather than anyplace else, which I have never done. I have to admit though…I do have an attachment to the home I grew up in. As broken as it was, my roots are there….it’s where I became who I am…at least where I started to become who I am. So, I can now relate to having two homes like you.
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I was very fortunate to have a warm, supportive family, and I know they contributed enormously to my sense of home. I am happy for you that you have finally found your place after so many years of searching. No matter how rough the beginning was, we do carry our roots with us, and we build from them. Then as adults we begin to make a home for our dear ones. – Fawn
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Very interesting post. I’ve struggled with the question “so where are you from”. All my life. I was born in upstate New York, but moved at age four and kept moving till I was 11 and ended up in Denver. But only for 9 years, then started moving every year or so till I hit 34 and ended up in Oklahoma City.
It was always such a traumatic thing for me (I found it very difficult to make friends, maybe because I knew in my heart they would up and move me again) that I decided to stay in a city I really hated for 20 years so my own kids would have a solid base. I’m still glad I did that, but 12 years ago I moved to Portland, and it has been “home” since the first day. But I’ve realized lately that Denver is also home, because I grew up there.
Thanks for sharing
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We moved from Arizona to California when I was two, and then we lived in the town where both my siblings were born until 7th grade. What a dreadful time to move, as all the cliques were firmly in place and it was very hard to fit in. But I love Arroyo Grande, and I think it will always be “home base” for our family. My daughter is 29 and was born here in Visalia…she can hardly wait to leave! It will be interesting to see how she feels when she no longer lives here. – Fawn
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My daughter left Oklahoma at around 23 in 1999 and moved to portland. While she goes back to see friends and family, she has found her home here in “weird” Portland also. I’ve come to believe the old adage, “home is where the heart is”
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Perfectly stated. We moved to San Diego almost 12 years ago. While I love it, and am at home here, I still refer to Northern CA as “home” – the place where I grew up, the place I became me, the place full of memories. Home is truly where my loves are. I too could use a second home in Hawaii. My heart is just calm there.
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Isn’t Hawaii amazing! I remember our first trip…as we got off the plane I watched in amazement as the many years of stressful teaching just melted off my husband. I think your phrase “the place I became me” says it all. – Fawn
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I have considered what really is home many times in my life as well. My home town I lived in for the first 10 years of my life until my father passed away, then my family decided to move away and I was dragged along because I was so young. I hated leaving my home and everything behind, it was very hard. I think because of that I held on for so long to that place called, ‘home’. I would go home every couple years to visit friends and family but, as of about 4 years ago I went back and almost 90% of everything that meant something to me as a kid has been removed and turned into huge apartment buildings. That was hard to face, I think that’s when I realized that place is not my home anymore, I barely even know that place anymore. I will always have my memories there but it is not my home anymore. Great post! 🙂
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I remember after we sold the house we had when I was a little girl in San Bernardino, we went back a few years later for a visit. Every feature the new buyers had raved about, they had changed, and I’m sure the house had shrunk! Seeing it again was definitely bittersweet, and I never ever felt the need to go back. That being said, I still drive by the house we had in Fresno when my son was little…just to check on it and make sure it is still being loved (and, thank goodness, it still is). – Fawn
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I have been fairly transient during my life. My mother has since passed and I have never had that feeling of staying put in one place, with the exception of my previous residence – I was there for almost 7 years. Home is where you feel safe and in my view, where there are the people I call family and love 🙂
Home is about relationships in my view, not necessarily the physical location, however I may have that perception because I have never had a well established physical home to go back to if ever in trouble (I.e – the house I grew up in where my parent/s might still reside)
Great question,
ML
x
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My daddy and younger brother still live in the home we moved to when I was a teenager, so I — at 64 years old — still sleep in my old bedroom when I go home for visits. I agree with you that home is where you feel safe, and I know if Daddy lived somewhere else, that place, too, would become home for me. My husband-who-lives-across-town used to get very irritated when I would refer to Arroyo Grande as “home”, because he thought that was what I should call the house we lived in. But it never really was. – Fawn
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I understand what you mean!
Thanks for taking the time to share some more of your story!
Miss Lou
xx
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