Waiting for Home

Four years and change after moving from Oklahoma City to Dallas, and it still isn’t home. There was a time that that statement made me feel lonely and sad, but I’ve made peace with it. There was a day when I realized it’s not home because it’s not home. It’s temporary. I woke up one morning and knew beyond a certainty that this is just a stop on our way to where we are going to end up. And I found peace in that thought – this is only a way-station on our way home. (And even our “forever-house” will only be a stop on our way towards something even more permanent…hopefully Heavenly.)

When I daydream about where home will eventually be, I envision a funky little house with a skylight in the kitchen, a small garden, and a backyard big enough for a German Shepherd.

The rest of it doesn’t really matter to me really at all. The town or city, urban or rural…these things aren’t important. There were times in the past that I would debate locations with my husband as if those things really mattered.

Now I know that I just need him, the kids, and a good parish nearby. Those are the non-negotiables in life for me.

And chicken fried steak.

I can’t live anywhere that I can’t get a good chicken fried steak. That would be anathema.

What about you? What are your non-negotiables? What do you absolutely need to make wherever you are into home?

Photo credits: House By David Sawyer (Flickr: Craftsman House) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Garden By GMairet via Wikimedia Commons

Steak By Kevin from Oklahoma, USA (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons