Home Is Where You Make It

I don't know about the rest of my crew, but for me, the move became real when we moved the tree.

With the help of dear, and longsuffering, friends, husband got our young apple tree - planted in my Dad's memory three years ago - dug up, moved to Mom's, and replanted. So far (cross fingers and knock on wood), tree is ruffled and highly indignant and not likely to bear this year, but she shows every sign that she will not only survive, but thrive, in her new location. Moving is a shock to the roots and system, for trees and humans alike...but if she can do it, so can we!

And now, there is a gaping hole in the yard where the tree used to be. The rest of the plantings - the rosebushes, the strawberries, the odds'n'ends - have been at Mom's now for some time, and the land around our house looks bare and strange. Already, this isn't "our" house anymore. Bit by bit, as clutter gets hauled out and books/odds/ends get dispersed among friends and the pile for the yard sale grows ever higher and deeper, this brick-and-wood-and-plaster shell that we've called home for three years is reverting back to being - to us - just a house.

I've moved a lot in my lifetime. It ain't fun. But it's taught me that "home is where you make it". Lovely old home, starter apartment, or shared/resculptured space with Mom, home is where your family is. Home is where you're safe. Home is where you come to at the end of the day, flop down, enjoy whatever creature comforts you enjoy, let loose and let down and just be yourself.

Home is where you Are.

As attached to our current house as I was, I expected to have a harder time letting go of it. And yeah, it twinges a little bit - I'll miss the woodwork, I'll miss the radiators, I'll miss the high ceilings and big rooms, I'll miss the grand old un-fussy comfortable personality of this "big old house".

But, much as I've loved living here, it is - in the end - just a house. And already, I feel myself detaching from this just-house, and looking ahead to the "something better" we're all looking to gain from this sacrifice.

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." -Martin Luther-