THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2021 HOME

 THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2021 HOME

I'M HOME (or, since I’m writing this before I’m actually home, I’m writing this as if I was at home)

I left my apartment about 10:00 on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, and I returned last night at about 6:30 p.m. - so I was gone for 15 days.  I was trying to think when was the last time I was gone from my basic residency for 15 days.  For sure, it hasn’t been since the pandemic started in March 2020.  My best guess is over Christmas break 2012-2013,  I/we were in Connecticut at that time, and we drove to Austin Texas to see our daughter, then to Grand Island, NE to see our son, then back home.  And, even then, did we reach the fifteen-day mark?  Three days on the road coming from Connecticut to Texas about five days in Texas, two days to Nebraska, four days in Nebraska, and three days back to Connecticut. 

I think the pandemic, the separation, and divorce, the retirement probably made this seem like a major milestone.  (And, yet NASA astronauts can spend a year or more on a space station!!  Boy, am I a wimp!!)  Traveling (alone) doesn’t seem to be as attractive as traveling with a spouse.  Even those long stretches on the road seem to go better with a companion to talk to or to decide where to stop for the night and where to get food.  

I’ve become almost a hermit in the past year.  Early in the pandemic, my friend AP and I would go walking together.  AP and I can seemingly talk about almost anything.  Then, in May, my church opened to 1/4th occupancy on Sundays.  The Recreation Center opened in June 2020 and I could walk indoors.  By fall 2020, I felt comfortable enough to spend a couple of nights with KW - but really leave my apartment for fifteen days?  That was pretty radical to me.

Recently, one of my historical posts was on building the transcontinental railroad, and those workers were away from home for years.  (Seemingly, maybe they no longer had a traditional home).  

“Home” is a loaded word.  “There is no place like home” was Dorothy’s plea as she clicked her heels together in the Wizard of Oz.  But, even then (as I extrapolate that fictional tale), Dorothy probably married and moved to some other location with her spouse.  (And, probably not too far away).  My apartment is ‘home’, but it’s not ‘home’ (Yes, I know that statement doesn’t make sense.)  

My furniture is there.  But, (my guess), is that I may live in other places until I die.  My sister/brother-in-law just sold their ‘home’ and are moving to a new(er) ‘home’ in Arizona.  

Anyplace I hang my hat is home is an old expression.  Or a variation, Home is where the heart is.  Christians talk about “going home” someday - meaning heaven.  “This Earth is not my home, I’m just passing through; my home is up above beyond, beyond the clouds of blue.”  

HOME

What is home to you?  A specific place?  A town, a location, a state?  It seems to be in vogue to have t-shirts with a map of a state and the word “HOME”.  I’ve seen lots of Texans with shirts like that - A map of Texas with the word “HOME”.  There are also bumper stickers that say “Native Texan”.  Is there magic in being a Texan?  Is there magic being an Iowan, a South Dakotan, a Nebraskan? 

For me, I think there is a home for all of us.  A permanent home.  

I believe in something so far beyond me - infinity, I can’t even start to describe it, because I don’t understand it.  

So, HOME - yes, I am home from my trip; yes, I am in my apartment.  But, where will I be when I die?  I want to think “I’m going home”!!!

LOVE WINS!!!

Karen