It is a wonderful thing to have a "home-place". This is a place that one can go back to after wandering. A place to return to after trying to find ones' self. A place to catch your breath if needed. A place to kick back. A place where the folks really know who you are because they know where and who you came from. A place where when you look at the pictures on the wall or in a fading photo album the eyes, mouth, hair and even the way a head is tilted whisper back at you: "Hey this is your home place. These are your people. This is a place that will always be."
And this is a place that feels like it has always been there.
One should use the word "always" and its other definitive cousins judiciously and I do not use it lightly. But "always" fits. I will always have family that loves me. I will always have family that like to throw parties and gatherings and laugh wide open mouth laughs. I will always have family that say: sure we have enough room!
The wonderful thing about this homeplace is it is a feeling. At the moment our family is enjoying great and spacious homes and grounds for cousins to run and jump together, for the dogs to roll in the grass under the trees or on the rugs in the hallway. We have places to stretch out and watch the next new thing on a big screen together.
I also remember gatherings at other "home-places". Surroundings that were not so stretchable and not as many people could get around the table. The children's table was always a memorable feature of these gatherings. But always the feeling was there: pull up a chair, share this laugh with us, discuss this concern with us.
The feel of a home-place moves. It moves with its people. It moves with that familiar shape of the eyes, that chin or that head of hair. It follows that saying: well you know what my grandma used to say... It follows its people.
We just had the chance to congratulate my middle child on her graduation from high school and her continuing onto college. Invitations were sent. Some could make it, some could not, but all were there. When the newly found album of faded pictures came out, all were remembered. They were there in the pictures of their roots. There were the stock that made the laughs widemouthed, that made the sayings what they are, that made the shoulder dip and hand sit on that hip. It was a gathering at a "home-place" and I will always have a place at home.
