Home {a new series}

Home.

I've been reflecting on the meaning.
When hearing that word, some of us picture the home we grew up in. White shudders, a red front door, and the front porch. Others might picture a city or flash through some of the most favorable memories. Playing ball in the backyard or playing "queen of the electrical box" (yes, I totally did that!).

How about you? What do you picture?

For me, my mind jolts into many different directions. I have a hard time landing in one place. I have lived in many different cities and in many different homes. My childhood memories flashback to one city while my awkward teen years flashback to another. When people ask where "home" is for me, I stutter awkwardly and then settle on Omaha because "um... well, that's where I lived the longest."

But the more I grow into my adulthood, the more I feel like "home" should have meaning to me. It should speak to where I've been, who I am, and where I'm going. Home should put definition to me.

I have lived in Boise for 4 years now. It seems like it has only been in this year or so that Boise has started to feel like home. Just last night a friend asked me if Boise was starting to feel like home and for the first time I was able to say, "the more I go away, the more I long to return. I guess it does feel like home."

Yet the questions remain: what makes Boise feel like home for me? What makes home feel like home for any of us? How does home define who we are?

Join me over the next few posts as I search to uncover the meaning of

home.

Until then, what does home mean to you?

Renewed Hope

Today's the first day where spring feels like it may be here to stay! The flowers are in full bloom, the grass is green, the trees reach to the sun, and the sun radiates warmth. 

Isn't spring great? Especially the first few days of spring. It gives us all a renewed hope. We escape our dens and adventure into the world. We breathe in the fresh, spring air with renewed smiles. We look forward. We dream about all the adventures we want to go on and all the friends and family we want to see in the summer. Spring brings a renewed hope to our bodies, minds, and souls because we are made to live in hope and joy. We are made to believe that all things can be new. As if we can spring up and grow and change and become beautiful just as those beautiful flowers do each new year.

Today, spring reminds me

there is always hope,

we can be new.

Leave the old season behind

and take hold of the beauty in the new season.

Embrace the beauty of renewed hope.

Small: Part II (1 year later)

Last week I celebrated spring break with some much needed traveling. I hit up Nebraska, South Dakota, and Colorado.

I love to travel and take every opportunity possible. I love seeing new places, meeting new people, and experiencing new perspectives. I love the people watching and imagining everyone's stories. I especially notice people in the airport. People hustling, eating, laughing, fighting, crying, etc. 

There is a lot to love about traveling, but there is one feeling I always get when I travel and it usually catches me by surprise.

The feeling of being small.

When I travel outside of my world, I am reminded that there are millions of people out there engulfed in their own lives, with their own stories. I am reminded that my life, my story is one of millions in the world and I am suddenly struck with the realization that life isn't all about me. Funny how quickly I forget that.

At first I feel overwhelmed at the feeling of being small. We all want to feel big and important, right? As if we matter, as if we make a difference, like the universe is a better place because of us. Yet, as I sit on the bench and watch the hundreds of people rush by, I lean in to the feeling of  being small.

Small reminds me that I can't do things on my own.
Small reminds me that I don't have to have it altogether
That there is a God bigger than me.
A God that pursues the small and makes the small beautiful.
Small takes the pressure off of life.
And being small makes me trust God all the more -the biggest of all- the omega, alpha, beginning and the end.

~ ~ ~

 

See Small to read more about feeling small.