a sense of belonging
“Was it hard, moving away from your family?” they ask. “Weren’t you homesick?”
I always smile as I shake my head.
I’d been homesick for him for so long that I couldn’t be homesick when we were finally making a home together.
Yes, there were the adjustments of a new town, a new job, finding a new church. And it wasn’t always easy—especially when my new husband landed in the hospital two months after we got married. But I was facing each challenge and change at the side of the man I loved; I knew I was where I belonged.
“There where my heart has settled long ago…
there with my love, I’m home.”
(“Far from the Home I Love” from “Fiddler on the Roof”)
It’s been seven years now since I got married and moved here.
Now I’m more used to the speed limits and tax rates here than where I grew up (even if I still can’t give you directions to get anywhere, there or here!). When I say “our church” it means the church we attend, not the one where I was baptized (even if I’ll forever identify myself as a Baptist). “Home” means the house he built, rather than the one I grew up in (even though home is wherever he is).
It may have taken seven years, but now there are more familiar faces on the streets here than when I go back to visit my family. It’s the people at work and farmers market and church and mom’s group that make up my local community. It’s more than just the knowledge that I belong; it’s the sense of belonging.
{Five-Minute Friday prompt: “belong”}
P.S. Don’t miss my sister Jessica’s Five-Minute Friday post, on Haiti and where she truly belongs.
Hi Gretchen,
This is a touching post. I spent the first 6 years in northern California in a small mountain town. Then when I was 6 1/2, my family moved up here to Oregon. We moved 24 years ago, and have been in Oregon ever since. I remember at 6 thinking it was going to be so hard leaving California where all my friends at that time lived, and kind of feeling strange here in Oregon for awhile. Now, I live in another small mountain town similar to the one in California. I know almost everyone I see at the grocery store and the post office. I attend a very small little conservative Church where I know everyone and they know me. I have several groups of friends who live in the Hillsboro/Portland/Forest Grove area whom I see quite a bit during the school year. Now whenever we go back to California, everyone I see is a stranger whom I don’t know. To me, California is somewhat like going to a foreign country. It does not feel like home, to me Oregon is home now. My oldest brother’s family lives in Vancouver Washington. Even whenever we go up there, I’m missing my funky small town with the log trucks whizzing by.
Thanks for sharing!
Blessings!
Bethany
“I’d been homesick for him for so long that I couldn’t be homesick when we were finally making a home together.”
Ahhhh….SO true! I was amazed at how getting married cured “homesickness” and how quickly home has become his arms, not my old familiar comfort zones. 🙂
Yes, yes! Nothing like marrying your best friend to make home wherever he is. <3
This was beautiful friend. 🙂
Thank you, sweet friend. 🙂
Beautiful post.
such a great post.
Thank you, dear faithful Five Minute Friday visitor. 🙂
Hi, there-
A beautiful post. I’m stopping by from Five Minute Friday. Have a wonderful weekend. -Heidi
Thank you, Heidi–same to you!