The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. ~ Maya Angelou
I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself. ~ Maya Angelou
A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. ~Benjamin Franklin
I have often found myself wondering how to define home. For many years I pondered the age-old question of, “what makes a house a home?” That is, until I realized that a home does not need to be a dwelling of any sort. Home can be defined in a myriad of different ways. Today, I dedicate this blog to the definitions of home. Please feel free to add your definitions to the comments section.
- Home is a place where I feel safe
- Home is a place to lay my head at night
- My home is with my partner and children, no matter where in the world that may be
- My home is where my cats are
- Home is a place where friends and family feel nurtured and supported
- Home is a place where I can relax and escape
- Home is not a place that is conflict free, but a place where conflict can be addressed and resolved
- Home is a place where I can laugh until my stomach hurts and cry until my pain disappears
What does home mean to you?
Today, 289 days ’til 40, I am reminded how fortunate I am to have a real home, something many individuals in this world do not have. A poor person can have an amazing home and a rich person can find themselves without a true place to call home…. for one can be rich in family, love and friends but have little possession and a man can overflow with wealth but have no home at all. I am so very thankful for my home, my safe haven. It is not something I take for granted. It is my prayer, 289 days ’til 40, that throughout the world those who are crying out for loving homes will have their prayers answered.
~400daystil40
Fortuitous Forty!!! 
boomiebol
May 8, 2012 at 00:03
Amen!!! Great post!!
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 08:11
Thanks!
buckwheatsrisk
May 8, 2012 at 00:13
how appropriate the timing of this blog for me, having just moved! home is where my Hubby is. i have learned i can make anywhere home, it is about attitude too. it is so true an poor person can be rich and a rich person poor! i love your blog posts!
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 08:11
😉
Nicole
May 8, 2012 at 00:16
Home are all places where I can be myself. I have felt strangley at home with strangers and of course especially at home, AT HOME, as in mine home. Certain landscapes feel like home to me too! Beautiful post!
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 08:10
🙂 Me too!
viveka
May 8, 2012 at 00:20
I say like IKEA – home is the best place in the world. But fare too many of us don’t have a proper home or no home at all. Not fair.
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 07:47
Very true!
rabidmongoose
May 8, 2012 at 00:33
Home is wherever your heart longs to be.
Thanks for sharing your list, it makes me think of my home, and reminds me of the love there.
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 07:46
I LOVE this!
writerwannabe763
May 8, 2012 at 01:03
‘Home’ has meant lots of things…I wrote a poem to my family back when they were young which I recently reblogged…but a short excerpt is..’What does home mean to me?…..a place of love, a place to see …a family live in harmony” There’s things is should not mean as well but that is another time…Diane
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 07:46
Wow, that is great!
cubbyholes
May 8, 2012 at 03:25
This post hit ..er.. home…for me.;) We spent years going from place to place with my husband’s work. It was hard. We never knew where we were going to be from one week to the next. We lived in a 28′ long travel trailer and moved from place to place. We traveled with our “home” and yes, that trailer was my home, but having a place to put it was never ours and it made it hard to feel safe when someone could walk up to your home and say, “time to move on.”
Then came the apt. years… again…it was home, but it never felt secure really.
When we bought our first house I expected it to feel like home immediately, but that took time. I felt more like a squatter in someone else’s house. Then I started to move our things in, decorate it the way we like, and put a new toilet seat on. That toilet seat did more to make it feel like home in those first days than anything else I did. Noone else’s butt had sat on MY toilet seat. I was home. Noone was coming to tell me to leave, or that they were raising the rent, or that I had to move on in 48 hours. Nope… home was also secure.
I’m home when I am with my beloved husband and my two dogs, but I am a nest person and home is also where I am secure in being. Home is where my toilet seat is ours and ours alone. 🙂
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 07:44
Thank you for making me laugh! I love the last sentence of your comment!!! It makes a difference, doesn’t it?
sahbinahvioletflynn
May 8, 2012 at 05:36
Home is in the voices of my mom and sister who relate goings on from 3,000 miles away; home is in the poker face man-child who delivers jokes so deadpan I think he’s utterly serious; home is the way my heartbeats when I experience them…it’s all in my HEART;o)
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 07:43
What a great comment! 🙂
New Hampshire Garden Solutions
May 8, 2012 at 16:04
I think that home to me is best described by this quote by John Ed Pearce: Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 23:03
What a great quote – thank you!!!
New Hampshire Garden Solutions
May 9, 2012 at 01:37
You’re welcome!
sued51
May 9, 2012 at 17:14
I love that quote New Hampshire!
Great post!
New Hampshire Garden Solutions
May 9, 2012 at 20:00
Thank you1
MinkaM
May 8, 2012 at 20:54
I’ve had this same question for years! Having come from divorced parents, I thought a lot about what “home” meant. I came to the conclusion long ago that home is where there are people who love me (and whom I love)–and I was blessed to discover that I had many homes!
And, maybe oddly, I associate home with different smells. For instance, the smell of Hungarian cooking is home. Cut grass always makes me think of my dad, which makes me think of home. And lilacs, since I grew up in a house surrounded by lilac bushes.
400daystil40
May 8, 2012 at 23:03
I love how you define home – I am also very connected to nostalgic smells!!! 🙂
Paws To Talk
May 9, 2012 at 04:21
Home is where the kibble is 🙂
Bella and DiDi
400daystil40
May 9, 2012 at 08:31
🙂
handustry
May 10, 2012 at 15:54
Home is my little house where I feel safe. I have safety issues in the sense I seldom feel safe anywhere I go. If I had to move, it would take time for me to get this safety feeling back again in the new place but it sure eventually will. So maybe home is this sensation of well being that we impregnate in our fixed surrounding ?
400daystil40
May 10, 2012 at 23:19
I agree with you completely – and also find that it takes me a while to really feel safe and secure in an environment. i do agree that as we are able to bond with our environment, and leave our own personal marks on it then it does indeed begin to feel more like home.