Today I was in Colorado Springs meeting with my ministerial support group. The book that we were studying was a book called 11. It is about 11 basic relationships that everyone needs in their lives. As a ministerial group we picked a theological book to discuss, and we also picked a book that challenged us in our relationship skills. The book 11 was the relationship book.
The section that resonated with most of us was the chapter entitled "You need a Jerusalem". Basically it is a belief that the author has that each us needs a place that is home to us. A land that is home. A place that we feel connected with, that we belong to. A place that also belongs to us.
Above is a picture of Eric Lundy. Eric is from Fowler, CO. Right now he is living in Omaha, Nebraska. Before that, he and his wife lived in Pueblo. Yet, as far as I can tell with all of my conversations with him, he is a Fowler man. His home is Fowler, and wherever he goes or moves, I don't see that changing. Then I get home, look on Facebook, and here is Eric with this Fowler golf shirt in the middle of Kansas City. Very cool. Fowler is Eric's Jerusalem according to the 11 book.
The thing is, I am not sure I have a "Jerusalem". I am not sure I have this one place that I go to and call that "home". Oh sure, I could name a general geographic region of the country. I am from the Northwest, and every day I am not there I miss it. But is Homer, AK my Jerusalem?? That is where I went to high school. Is Roseburg, Oregon my Jerusalem? That is where I spent the first 10 years of my life. Belgrade, Montana sure felt very homey.
Should I choose a place and just call it my home, or does that place choose me? I have always felt a little homeless. Since I was 10 I have not really lived in one place for more than 5 years. My homes have included Ashland, Oregon; Soldotna, Alaska; Homer, Alaska; Deerfield, IL,; Sterling, KS; Kansas City, KS; Belgrade, MT; Colorado Springs, CO; and Fowler, CO. I also spent summers in Stony River, AK; Powers Lake, ND; and Canton, IL.
I think people who are "grounded" in a particular place are more and more rare. But you still do see them. My friend Amy is a Kansas girl through and through. As is my friend Alvin, even though he lives in the Eastern Colorado plains right now. My mom would always consider Roseburg, Or home.
Many of my family, who had followed jobs around to different places in the West, had an episode where they decided to head back "home" to Oregon. Some of them found a place to land back there. Others went there and discovered that the Oregon they knew and grew up in and passed them by. You can't always go back home.
Where is home to you? is it where you were born, or some place you discovered? Do you feel like you are grounded in a certain place? Why or why not?
1 comment:
You have me pegged to be sure. There is no place like home and regardless of where I go home will always be Kansas. I also think that home is a state of mind and where you're family is, whomever they are.
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