There'e No Place Like Home

Today is my last day at home.  Tomorrow I shall pack up my children and our belongings and head home. It amazes me that statements like this no longer confuse my children but it seems they have figured out that I have two homes.  One is in Canada, where my family resides, although my parents no longer live in the house I lived in with them.  Nonetheless, this general part of the GTA is still home to me.  This is the home of the heart.  My other home is the house in which I currently live.  That home is nomadic and is the home of my belongings and my life and changes rather frequently.  The children, and probably anyone else who knows me, know that when I am at my house and talk of going home, it means Canada.  If I am in Canada and talk of going home, it means I am going to my house.

Now that I think of it, I also have a third home, which is in BC.  This is where I grew up and although it has been many, many years since I lived there, it still holds a piece of my heart.  When I see the mountains my spirits soar and I feel like I can breathe again.

I wonder if my children will ever have anywhere they can call home.  My son is 10 and has lived in 4 cities in 3 countries.  My daughter is 8 and has lived in 3 cities in 2 countries.  They have lived longest in the US but they are not US citizens, so what currently feels like home to them is not a place they can choose to live in without great amounts of time, effort and money put into settling mundane beurocracy.  And should the US be the place they choose to call home when they are older, it is likely not the place they will find their parents.

We have not made "home" a simple concept for our children and sometimes I wonder if they will ever have a sense of "home".  I hope they do, because it is always refreshing to have a place to go home to - to regroup, reconnect, recollect and rejoice - no matter where it is.