Advertisement

firehouse pizza banner

Patty Craig: A Slice of Time

What makes a house a home? Is it the things we have in it? Is it the people we share it with? Is it the location? Like many of you, when I think of home, my mental picture is welcoming.

Shelter, an English housing and homelessness charity, posted a website article listing its definition of ‘home.’ That definition included:
•    A home should provide privacy for solitude, individual pursuits, personal relationships and relaxation.
•    A home should be a place free from fear.
•    A home should be affordable and should provide continuity, a place to settle.
•    A home should be a place where you can be warm, dry, clean and free of risks and hazards as well as somewhere suitable to sleep and rest. If you have additional support needs, your home should accommodate these.
•    A home should allow you to form relationships and links to the wider community.
•    A home should provide adequate support for people's practical, health and emotional needs (http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/why_we_campaign/the_housing_cris...).

I asked a few people, ages 4 to 62, what home means to them. Some of their responses are below:
•    Home is where they understand you.
•    Home is where you are comfortable.
•    Home is family.
•    Home is where you have fun.
•    Home is where you feel the most loved and the most comfortable.
•    Home is where you can always go and be calm and peaceful.
•    Home is where your family is.
•    Home is where you can always feel at peace and rest. It’s where your memories are.
•    Home is where you play.
•    Home is where you feel safe. Home is where you’re the person you really are. Home is where you go to recharge so you can face the world.
•    Home is where you want to come back to, where you feel most loved and comfortable.
•    Home is the place I like to be most.

Making a home requires a personal investment. We decorate and redecorate our homes. Our most important memories are often associated with this place. When we’re tired or sick and enter our home, we feel a sense of comfort, a sense of welcome.

I’ve lived in 11 different residences, five of those were houses and six were homes. I didn’t invest in the five houses; I didn’t “put down roots.” But, I have good memories of the six homes. As William J. Bennett said, “Home is a shelter from storms….”

Tags: 


Bookmark and Share

Advertisements