"There’s no place like home" is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot ever since Dorothy made it famous in the “The Wizard of Oz”. With a simple “tap, tap, tap” of her shoes and repeating “there’s no place like home," she could transport herself from Oz back to where she really wanted to be.
I’ve always known that the word "home" has special meaning, especially as it relates to my family, my parent’s house and my roots. But I never really had a desire to purchase a home of my own, and make that kind of commitment to a place. I didn’t understand the value of making that much of a financial investment, of tying myself to a single structure for an undefinable amount of time.
I’ve heard the pros and the cons. I’ve heard that it can pay off in the long run, but I didn’t understand the meaning of building a home of my own until yesterday night.
I went to a holiday party at the home of one of my co-workers. One step inside, and I felt like I was in a Hallmark Christmas movie. Every detail of her home was impeccably thought out and every corner had a splash of red, green or white for Christmas. There was a window in the dining room from floor to ceiling that peeked out into the backyard. String lights crisscrossed, with hay on the ground and vines wrapped around the rustic wood walls and trees.
You could tell that this was a home built with love, and that it took time to grow.
We gathered to eat dinner around a burlap-covered table in the middle of her backyard with snowmen holders thoughtfully placed around each of our napkins. We drank wine and apple cider and talked about life with the scent of hay in the air and Christmas music playing faintly in the background.
There was a lot of laughter and we all seemed to feel a little lighter – a little more joyful. We were safe and sound in someone’s home and there was freedom in knowing that. You could feel the care that this family had put into creating a place where others felt welcome, and it mattered to those who visited. It mattered to us last night.
I left last thinking that maybe there was more to this home thing than I thought. Maybe a home isn’t a place that you buy for its future real-estate value, but instead an opportunity to make an investment in a place that has meaning to you and those who you invite to be a part of it.
Maybe a home is something that is carefully and thoughtfully created over time into a space that brings you joy. I can’t wait to begin to craft and create a space that I can call mine and that makes others feel like all is right with the world, at least for a little while.
Toward the end of the evening, we drank hot cocoa and played a game called “Left, Center, Right.” We exchanged gifts and I received a little plaque with a saying on it that I’m beginning to appreciate more and more.
It said: “Home… there’s no place like it.”