Home is where you make it...

Home is where you make it. I'm learning that as I get older, and move from place to place. Shortly after hubby and I got married, we packed up and moved 1000 miles away from all our family and friends. It was scary. And lonely. I attribute some of that to the shock of moving from the Pacific Northwest down to southern California. It was like moving to a foreign land - we didn't even speak the language (Hello? Who drinks "soda"?). For years, anytime we made a visit to our family in Oregon I'd pine away for our "home" up north for months after. I would devise plans for us to pick up and move out of that barren cesspool that is L.A. Ironically, when it finally came time for us to leave sunny CA, I couldn't bare to leave the close family of friends we had created during our nine years there. I got my wish to move back up north, yet I'd learned over the years that there's more to home than location. When we arrived in Washington 2 1/2 years ago, I found that same isolation, just a different place. Happily, though it took a while, we're creating a home for ourselves again. We're making connections to our community, and nurturing new friendships. Home is that place where you make the effort to make yourself at home.