"I think home has become my friends and family, wherever they are."
As someone in their mid 30's, I always feel like life is a quest. A quest to find some importance in this life. While I do not have a family of my own, except for immediate family, I am always looking for that meaning in life...or so it seems.
I have been fortunate in my lifetime to achieve numerous accomplishments, whether it was by my own doing or by the assistance of a loving family.
I graduated from college with a degree in graphic design and journalism at a prestigious college in Florida, all the while being able to personally pay off all my college debt by the age of 25.
I drove across the country from Florida to Portland, Oregon, where I lived for a year. Along that trip, I was able to see some amazing sights. The gulf coast of the United States, for one. This area was full of kind, generous folks and small businesses. People willing to lend you a helping hand, if need be.
I drove through the great state of Texas, a large mass of land with so much empty prairies and valleys, but full of so much beauty.
I drove through New Mexico and Arizona. While it is predominantly desert, there isn't a more beautiful place to be at night. Not only is one of them the home of the Grand Canyon, (also a site seen) Arizona, but also you are able to seemingly see every star in the sky at night, for there is no light pollution. It's as if God has painted the evening sky every evening with so much beauty, that if you dont pay attention, you'll miss his daily masterpiece.
Then there was California. What an enormous state, but each area was as different as night is to day. Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Redwood Forest...all so much different yet life changing. The Cascade Mountains of the Northwest. There is nothing like driving over a highway that connects to mountains, only to stop on the side of the road, look over the barricade and see at least a 3,000 ft drop to put how small you are in the grand scheme of things. Such majesty and awe inspiring can a scene like that bestow.
Once you get to Oregon, the beauty does not end there. Lush trees, roaring currents from the columbia River, cascading waters down from the Multnomah Falls...all of it can bring tears to your eyes: perfection.
Then there was NYC after a last minute move. The hustle and bustle of the city would destroy anyone of a weak mind. You have to be ready, all the time, to be en route. Nobody waits for you. And you can't wait for yourself. You just go. But in that enormity of stress can invoke a strength that you least expected. A strength to achieve anything you want, with hard work and due diligence.
Then there is Florida. A state I was born in and a state I once again reside in.
I say all this to say that no matter where you travel, where you work, no matter where you presently call home...home is always the place where your friends and family reside. Though friends and/or family can be synonymous, your home is where your heart is. It is where you exude love and where love is in turn exuded to you. It is where you feel comfortable to share your heart and where you feel at peace.
If you are struggling to find a place that you feel is home, always know that home is where you feel right about yourself. You might be a vagabond, constantly on the go or in a state of bouncing from house to house. You may be in the same house that you've been in for 30 years. That doesnt matter. Find your happy place with the people that make you happy. That place is now, and forever, your home. No matter where you live later, or even where those same people live later, when together...you are home.
I hope this brings peace to any of you that, like myself, have a restless heart, longing for meaning.
One love now and always,
