Dear Reader:

I read an article the other day about the number of times in our lives we have a yearning to go home again. For me, a homesick child, that meant any time I wasn’t home, while growing up…but for most there are certain stages of development in life that lend themselves to “homesickness.”

The article went on to explain that sometimes it happened soon after high school graduation…whether one went on to college or had some other outside life experiences…when things went badly and not as anticipated ..one’s  first instinct was to return home…to a place of acceptance and security.

For others, it was often after a serious broken relationship that the yearning to return home raised its head, or then after children came…the desire to be around family support, and particularly at retirement age the longing to return back to where we grew up urges us homeward one last time.

Eva Cate had planned to spend Tuesday night with me and do all kinds of fun things Wednesday here in Summerville… while Mandy took care of annual medical appointments and visits before school re-opens again. But Mandy called Monday afternoon and Eva Cate was hesitating…she wanted to come but she was scared she would get homesick Tuesday night and not be able to go back home.

So I called Eva Cate and told her that plans had changed and it didn’t suit me for her to come but asked her if I could spent the night with her so we could go do some fun things in Mt. Pleasant while Mandy got all her medical visits in. (Eva Cate was so relieved and happy at the change of plans.) As a former child product of intense homesickness that is one “ailment” I don’t push…she will grow out of it in her own good time.

(And we did have fun…shopping, eating lunch out, always topped off with ice cream…well frozen yogurt.)

Actually, however, it was little Jakie, that prompted the idea behind this post. Soon after arriving Tuesday Jakie came up to me and in his sweet little voice asked….“I wanna go home Boo Boo…I wanna go home.”

Do you want to go to Boo Boo’s house?” I inquired. Jakie looked puzzled and repeated the question. The second time I replied “Well Jakie…you are already home…right here.” Jakie slowly nodded but still didn’t seem satisfied with the answer.

I probably never would have given it a second thought…but this line of questioning continued throughout the next two days with Jakie asking both John, Mandy, and myself the same question repeatedly with all of us smiling and replying…”But you ARE home Jakie.”

(Mandy and John said that this repetitive question had started about a week earlier and neither knew the origin behind it …perhaps a teacher told Jakie it wasn’t time to go home while he was playing at pre-school. With no sense of time small children can interpret adult responses differently than intended.)

Then my thoughts took another turn…Were all of our own personal yearnings simply the desire to return back to our spirit…our inner light calling us home. (The same front porch light that has been left on since we departed in the darkness and will stay lit until we return again.)

Like the following message explains…maybe we have to go through all the stages of trying on “different people” who make us up or made us up for size…  to find our one true self…our forever homeward bound self.

So until tomorrow…It takes us a complete cycle of life to grow into the person we always were, the person God intended us to be.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh