There’s no place like home

Home in snowy mountains
Home in snowy mountains

For most of this year friends and family have watched me flitting around three countries trying to make a first home for my husband and me. I knew 2014 would be a difficult year, as we consolidate the scattered lives of two adults “of a certain age” from three countries into one. I had no idea!

Some things in life just take time.

Many times what you want, as clear as you may be about it, just doesn’t happen right away. And getting from here to there takes effort, energy and a lot of patience. Most often the good stuff in life takes time to come to fruition; home cooking is tastier than fast food. The process of creation occurs in space and in time.

But when the process takes too long for comfort, creative times can get very dark. They can be exhausting. It’s easy to lose faith, and hard to keep from giving up.

There’s no place like home.

“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” As Dorothy repeated these words to herself, she had no way of knowing they would work. She clicked her ruby slippers again and again, hoping, believing, reaching out for home. Her return home came at the end of a challenging – even frightening – adventure, but one that showed her new worlds and her old world in a new way.

Since April I’ve not been in one place longer than three weeks. You can see from the date of my last post just what finding our home has cost me. So day before yesterday, after my own round of heel-clicking, I finally let go. I gave myself 24 hours to rest and renew. Today has been a very productive day.

We all need a bit of stillness at the eye of the storm. And that’s why I’m so grateful to be home. I’m grateful to have (yet again) three weeks in my own space to take time out, to catch up with myself and to replenish my energy before the next whirlwind blows through.

What whirlwind are you transiting?

It could be a physical home you’re creating or a more meaningful job; a new community of friends or a more nurturing partnership. Or it could be that you’re just so caught up in the demands of your daily life that you don’t feel at home even when you are.

Life’s just like that sometimes – filled with comings and goings, taking hold and letting go, never-ending cycles rolling one into the next. Sometimes rest happens when you get home, and sometimes is happens on the way. Both are required.

What do you do to keep your faith in dark times? How do you find your connection to the light within?

Home is here and now (too).

I want to invite you right now wherever you are to close your computer and close your eyes. Take a moment to return your attention to your body, your being here now, your presence in the world. You can make a home for yourself, wherever you are along the way.

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Comments

  1. Heather Beadle says

    Katherine – Excellent blog! Have you read the book, “The Art of Stillness” by Pico Iyer?

  2. Katherine says

    Well, Heather, it took me long enough. I’ve been off doing other things lately! I have not read this book, but I’ll check it out. It is an art indeed today!