A Place to Call "Home"

“Home” the Summer of ‘77 was our tiny camper parked in a family friend’s backyard, hooked up to their garden hose, while my dad was between jobs. That same summer, at 13, I worked full-time, 6 days a week in the baking hot, dirty cornfields of Illinois, covered in so much pollen it would burn the areas where your sweat collected. By 9th grade I had lived in 9 different homes, including our camper, in 9 different cities . . . the last time we would own a home I was in 1st grade.

Life has a profound way of weaving some very interesting stories into the fabric of our memories, and deep into our souls. I often think about those 9 “Homes”, all the way points of growing up. And I often wonder if that’s why homes, and the families that create & grow into them, have become the center of my life’s work and passion for the last 33 years.

No journey is complete without a place to call “Home.” Home just isn’t where the heart is . . . it’s where it all begins. “Home” gives birth to families, it ushers in holidays, graduations, parties, and home provides us solace, and peace.  Home is at the end of every day, just as it’s at the beginning of so many hopes and dreams. Home is that truly great destination at the end of every great adventure welcoming us as we’re weary from our travels. But home is so much more than a destination .  .  .  it’s our safety. Our haven from the world when the world becomes too much. We all have a natural, deeply rooted, longing for a place to call “Home”.

“There’s no place like home.”
~ Dorothy Gale, The Wizard of Oz, 1939