I long, as does every human being, to be at home  wherever I find myself. 

~Maya Angelou

Stroll into almost any gift shop or decor store and you will likely find a wall hanging, throw pillow or dish towel that makes a claim along the lines of:  home is not a place but a feeling, the place where they have to accept you, home is a people… essentially home is something more than a house or a geographical location.  As  a bit of a nomad I have found this to be comforting and true, home is something we can find wherever we go, home is something we can take with us.

Yet, even if we find home again after leaving ours  behind we don’t ever feel fully at home.  A friend of mine recently shared this quote with me from Miriam Adeney;

“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”

While the mountains and the people of Lesotho have become a home of sorts, and I absolutely adore my round house, I occasionally suffer from a bittersweet bout of  homesickness.  Homesick for; the heat of Texas, the wiggles and giggles of my nieces, the overwhelming eagerness of a certain black dog, the beauty of a North Carolina sky, the crunch of a dirt trail, and my people who I’ve left behind.  I know when I leave Lesotho that there will be a sense of homesickness I will carry with me, because I have come to love and know this place and its people richly.  I am grateful for the many places and the beautiful people across the globe who are a home for me.

Know people, love them well, see places that cause deep awe and break your heart pay the price so that you too carry a bit of homesickness with you, even when you are right at home.

Salang Hantle,

Bren

Welcome to my home…