Returning Home

Returning Home

3/30/12

Human have this unique characteristic about them when it comes to the place that they consider to be their home.  It does not matter which place that you call home, but where ever that place is the human heart longs to be there.  There may be no contacts present in that place or any other connections that tie a human there, but whatever the heart considers home that is where a person’s roots are located.

One morning a while back I was coming out of the main hospital building returning to my lab that I call my cubby hole I proceeded down the steps to the side walk that runs along the hospital.  I looked up after completing the downward steps exercise and saw a coworker that I had not spoken to in a while.  She was getting out of her car and as I said good morning to her she bellowed the exact words in return.  I told her that I recognized that she was in a good mood and she immediately returned with the word “YES!”  I asked her what was up and she once again looked at me and said that she only had a few days left of work in the hospital and that she was going back home to North Carolina.  I shot back with I am jealous!! and then gave her a quick hug and told her I was going to miss her but returning home was a wonderful thing.

Now, this coworker has always been a friendly person and very nice person to all of her patients.  She has always been pleasant to talk with and just an all around good person.  But as I spoke with her that morning I could not help but feel the added excitement that flowed from her when she was speaking about returning to North Carolina and how much this wondrous occasion was affecting her.  She was hyped to the point of being jittery which was so encouraging to see and experience.

As some of you know I was born and raised in a minister’s home, which meant that I moved around a lot during my tenure at home.  My travels included the west coast of the United States all the way to the shores of the Gulf Coast with a few states sprinkled in between these boundaries.  The majority of the places that I lived in were pleasant experiences and even with one particular place that I did not like, which I have forgiven, I had no major problems with living there.  I am blessed in the fact that I had an opportunity to see different parts of the country and to experience some of the many regional cultures of the land.

With all of the moving around one can guess that I might have not considered that I actually had a home, a place that where I could refer to as being born and raised, a safe haven if you wish to use that term.  For the main portion of my life I spent in the south, the deep south to be more specific and that is the place where I have many fond memories.  But as I stop and think about things, I have fond memories in the other parts of the country where I lived as well.  I often wonder how it would feel if I had only lived in one or two places in my life, and when I complete this task I return to my original conclusion that I was lucky to have the opportunity to have lived the life that God had placed me in.

But there is one place that I do consider to be my home.  I have lived in western Colorado for almost 20 years now and it is simply amazing to live in this part of the country, but this is not my home.  My parents live in part of the country as well and it is an honor to still have them in my life and my children’s lives, but they too know that this place is not my home.

When I was a youngster my parents would try and take trips to my grandparents whenever they could.  It usually meant holidays and summer vacations in one part of the country.  Christmas time in Colorado was great which meant snow on the ground and snowball fights with my cousins.  Summertime in Arkansas was a bit hot but bearable when it came to seeing my grandparents, uncles and aunts.  All of these trips meant a lot to me but I had no clue what they actually meant to my parents.  In all of these trips, they were returning home, returning to their home.  How exciting they must have felt and all I thought we were doing was taking a vacation.

After I left high school and college I joined the USAF and eventually was stationed in Utah.  The military has an identity procedure which records your home of record, or place where you enlisted into the military.  My home of record (HOR) was Little Rock, Arkansas the place where I was sworn into the USAF.  My HOR was present on all my military documents which I found interesting but did not care too much about it.  When I was discharged from the military my final piece of paper that I signed had all of the pertinent information about myself including my HOR.  Everything pointed back to my HOR even though I was not located at my HOR.

As time has passed here in Colorado I have realized that I still consider the south to be my home, more specifically southeast Texas.  What a place to call home huh.  Well, this is the place where my heart considers home and as of now there is not much I can do to change that belief.  Nederland, Texas was the place where I spent my last two years of high school and the beginning portions of my college days.  Houston, Texas and Cleveland, Texas are considered home as well since both are located in SE Texas also.  It still confuses me as to why this area I consider my home but it is and I was excited last summer when I had the opportunity to return back to the so called homeland.

As time approached to the SE Texas trip I found myself thinking more and more about my time there and how much I had missed the area and the people.  I knew that many things would have changed and that some of the “monuments” that I once knew might not even be standing but I still wanted to see the place once again.  I know that my wife and kids tired of me talking about the area and were probably ready to come back to Colorado even before we had left on the trip, but my excitement could not be contained.

It was an added pleasure to find out a couple of years ago that I have a niece that lives in a town close to Nederland and that we would be able to spend time with her and her family for the first time.  Many memories flashed through my mind about all of the places and people that needed to be visited but reality set in hard when only a few of them were accomplished.  The people I saw again provided me with a few lingering questions I had and seeing some of my old stomping grounds sent my head spinning with other memories.  For some unexplainable reason I felt secure in that area and it truly felt like I had returned home; my heart was at peace.  I ignored the heat and humidity along with the bugs and even the baby snakes in the hotel; nothing could top this feeling, I was home.

The SE Texas trip quickly came to an end and it was time to return back to the place where I live called Colorado.  My heart sank as I said goodbye to the people that I love and to the place I hold very dear in my heart.  The day we left was rough but we had one more stop remaining which would keep me in the area a tad bit longer.  A few hours with a family friend that I actually call my sister ended the trip with even more joy and some goodies and pickles too. J  We left Cleveland and headed north to Dallas where we would spend the night.  The next evening we were back in Colorado to the place where I live and like being and in the place where my children call their home.

As we go through this journey called life we cannot help but have a place in our hearts that is called home.  We as human beings also have a more important home one in which calls to us every day.  It is inhabited by our heavenly father and our creator and His name is God.  God is our spiritual father and He represents our spiritual home, the place where all of us originate. 

Our spiritual home constantly beckons us to return and to restore ourselves to its wisdom and understanding.  Home continually cries out to our hearts for us to come and place ourselves back at the feet of God so that we may be protected and once again be around our Father.  Home continually places information in our paths which allow us to remember where our spirits originated and how much we need to look around and see the patterns that we have made for ourselves.  Home incessantly sings the song that grabs our attention that our heavenly Father loves us and that we need to heed to His words.  Home is where our hearts long to be but in the end it is our choice to remain at a distance from our home.

When prisoners have finished serving their time the one place that they do after getting out is to return home.  When soldiers return from fighting their battles the first thing that they do is return home to their families.  We as humans have been placed in both of those circumstances and it is time that we return home to where we belong; God is calling us home for us to turn our hearts from this world and return home to Him.

There is nothing wrong with returning to our spiritual home and once again remind ourselves of our spiritual roots and our origins that gave us our definitive qualities of life.  There is nothing wrong in returning home and feeling secure in the place where your creator lives.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with returning to your inner temple space and cleaning it before your Father, and there is nothing wrong with your Father restoring the peace that only He can instill within our spirit.  The only way that this restoration is possible is if we continually allow God to communicate with our spirits or if you wish to put it like this…a direct link to God which in turn is a direct link to our home.  God is our home and He is our beginning our present and our future.  Let us return home!

DLB