This week, I am leaving home to head up to Maryland for the rest of the summer. While I am really excited, I always have this bittersweet feeling leaving home and I was reminded of a quote this week:
“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.” –Miriam Adeney
These words really resonate with me. Over the past few years, I have learned that home isn't just a place that you are from. Home can be a person, a place, a feeling—and that can be anywhere.
If you ask me where I’m from, my response will always be Florida. It is where I grew up, where my family, my high school and my home church are. If you ask me where I call home, though, the answer is a little more complicated.
Five years ago, I went on my first mission trip to Haiti.
Three years ago, I made the move from Florida to Tennessee to go to school.
Last year, I lived in Maryland for a semester-long internship.
I remember the first time I called Tennessee “home” while I was visiting my family and friends in Florida and how strange that felt. I also remember having to justify calling it home to my friends who argued, “Well, this is your home.”
And yes, it is, and always will be. But somewhere along the way, other places became home. I found home on a hot porch in Haiti. I found home in the mountains in Tennessee. I found home in a bell tower office in Maryland. Stepping into each one of these places, I had no idea what was coming or who I was going to meet when I got there. And I never would have thought that each place would mean to me what they do now.
As the quote says, “You will never be completely at home again.” This is the hard part. Every day I’m reminded of my brothers and sisters in Haiti, my church family in Maryland, my college community in Tennessee or my family and friends in Florida. I have loved and known people in each of these places, leaving part of my heart pretty much everywhere I go. There is always something or someone to miss. But: “That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”
It can be hard, but it is so worth the cost. As I get ready to leave Florida again and find myself already feeling homesick, I have to remind myself that it isn’t a bad thing. It means that I have so much to be thankful for. How beautiful is it to be able to know and love people from all over?
Leaving is hard but I am so thankful for the people that make my homes, home. In the wise words of Winnie the Pooh, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
