
Shelby and I know something about packing. It’s probably more accurate to say that our parents know something about packing. We moved quite a bit growing up and I am grateful for each of those new experiences in new places, but it has made me feel a bit homeless at times. It’s difficult to answer when people ask where you are from. My thoughts on home have evolved quite a bit as an adult, as thoughts tend to do. I feel secure in knowing that home for me is sometimes a place, but more often it’s people.
My husband and I moved far away from family almost four years ago. We decided to pack up and follow a call to North Carolina. We knew it was our next stop along the way. I have felt the strangest joy in being homesick at times since we’ve moved. I have never felt homesick before, through all of our family’s moves growing up, and now I am proud to say that not only do I miss our family, but I miss the place we left. I feel a connection to that place that is the result of the relationships we built there and the experiences we had. I am content now to know my home is wherever my relationships are.
Rumi said, “Rushes and reeds must be woven / to be useful as a mat. If they weren’t interlaced, / the wind would blow them away. / Like that, God paired up / creatures, and gave them friendship” (“Of Being Woven”). I am useful because I am woven and connected with those people in each place that I can come back to again and again. I am grateful for so many places to unpack.
Like leaving altars along the way
each place you’ve known to stop
I carry everything with me wherever I go
just unpacking a little bit and waiting
until I know to move on
to pack again
only leaving those signs of gratitude
at the places that are still holy
to those who are still there
Beautifully said Lyd! This makes me reflect on our knowing one another in our childhood years, as both of our families moved often. But spending a week with you each year on vacation felt like coming “home” in a way. There arent many people who saw me birth-18, but you certainly did (bless you. ha!) Much love, -McKenzie
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Beautifully said Lyd! This makes me reflect on our knowing one another in our childhood years, as both of our families moved often. But spending a week with you each year on vacation felt like coming “home” in a way. There arent many people who saw me birth-18, but you certainly did (bless you. ha!) Much love, -McKenzie
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