Friday, December 31, 2010

Coming Home

So I am so disappointed that I looked at my blog and I have not written in over a month! I guess I could blame it on the Holidays or traveling, but really what it comes down to is lack of discipline. The holidays were filled a lot of family, a lot of snow and a lot of travel! I always eagerly anticipate the holidays spent with my family in Chicago, telling my friends, “I’m going home for Christmas!” But this year, “going home” felt, well, like “leaving home.”  When did this suddenly all change…and why?!
After six years, can I say that my home, and my heart, is here now, in Portland?! It was an unexpected feeling, but one that I embrace and welcome, because it is good to be content exactly where you are. It means that I have now established my life. My own city. My own home.
I missed my adult life; my friends, my cats, my cozy little home under the two big sequoia trees. I missed my church, my roads and the hills. I even missed Winco! I missed my coffee pot and my routines. I missed green!  Oh glorious green!  I always seem to forget how much easier grey is if there is green along with it. And I even missed the rain.

What makes a place finally feel like home? And does every person eventually get to that point? I think home is where your friendships are. Home is where you live the “moments in between”..the everyday. Home is the ups and downs. It’s filled with the people you “do life with’. With coffee dates and walks in the park. With deep conversations and tears. Home is my life. I think any place can become home; it just takes time, and people and memories. Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE my family and I still enjoy the time spent together when I visit. But I when the plane finally lands on the runway in PDX, I am home.