The Comforts of Home
Unless you’re living in some sort of alternate universe, I know you’re aware that the COVID 19 Coronavirus has pretty much brought life as we knew it to a screeching halt. Many of the things we did everyday are now “on hold”, many of our behaviors and patterns have been shifted. Many of us are finding ourselves with a whole lot of time on our hands. This past Friday, the Governor of Illinois, issued a “shelter in place ” order beginning on Saturday at 5pm. Basically, all non-essential businesses are closed and people are asked to remain at home as much as possible. For me that means, I’m not going to my day job for the next couple weeks. So, considering how I would pass the time the next few weeks, I started thinking about the place I’ll be spending a whole lot of time….home.
A few months back I wrote a blog post about a tree (read that post here). Within that post, there was a quote from Katie Brown’s book, “Dare to See” about home and how our 4 walls give us what we need, when we need it.
“…Perhaps this is because of what I do for a living. To be clear, my entire adult life has been about all things home. A house and what it takes to turn that house into a home is my life’s work and my passion, both professionally and personally. To me this work is deeper than just furniture arranging, choosing wall colors, party menus or gift wrap. To me, my work is, was, and always will be about how to turn that house into a safe haven where people can create important traditions, confidences, intimacies, and securities. My work is to highlight the important role that a home can play in so many different ways in the development of a family’s lifestyle…”- Katie Brown, “Dare to See”
I think now, more than any other time, we can all see how important HOME is. These people, these friends, these memories are really the most important things in our lives. I think about how we all get so busy with our lives, running here and there, that we forget that the solitude and the safety of our home gives us so much more than we can ever really appreciate.
It’s important to remember that the comforts of home aren’t always “things”. In a much larger way, the comfort we find at home is a “feeling”. I have a level of comfort in my own home, and different feeling of comfort when I’m at my parent’s house where I grew up, and yet another when I’m at my church home. The comforts of home can be a pair of warm, cozy slippers and a soft blanket, but can also be that knowing when you open that door, there is a spouse, partner, child, friend or wagging tail ready to greet you when you open the door. Or maybe, it’s just knowing that the stress of a crazy day has been left outside when the door closes and you’re finally home.
So, as we all find our way through the next few weeks and months, with (I hate this term) a new normal, I hope we all start to appreciate what we have, right within our own four walls. There are so many homeless people in our world, so many living in impoverished nations that can only dream of living in a house. In the end, I hope this time in our history teaches us, that we didn’t really need all that “stuff” we thought we did, that maybe we weren’t really as “busy” as we thought we were, that all along what we really needed to appreciate the most was right here within our four walls.
Now, here’s where you can get involved. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting on my social media posts some of my favorite “comforts of home”. I invite you to post yours, using the hashtag #comfortsofhome2020.
And on another note, I’ve been working on “reviving” my long forgotten YouTube Channel. I’m spending some of my time these weeks making a few videos, with baking and cooking demos, and who knows what else! Head on over there and subscribe so you’ll know when new content gets posted! (I’ll post a link soon!)
I hope you are all well, staying home and staying safe. I think it’s important to remember in these uncertain, unprecedented times, that our faith is what always gets us through. We will get through this and my prayer is that we are all better human beings for it.
Much Love,
Greg
