February 24, 2008. Chevy Chase. Home.

It is always a pleasure to come home.  No matter where I have been or how much I have enjoyed my journey, coming home is unfailingly a joy.  I have often tried to figure out why this is so.  I always love to go on trip, and both Ken and I enjoy the journey.  After one day in a new spot we are perfectly comfortable.  And then we come home.  Often we are in other homes we own and where we have all our own clothes and furniture, but we still feel like home when we arrive at the apartment.  I have asked other folks about this concept, and I am told they like to sleep in their own bed, so they are happier at home. But we sleep in our own bed in Texas at the ranch, where the mattress is exactly the same as our bed in the apartment.  We have family pictures on the wall in Nova Scotia and Texas, so those houses certainly feel like home to us and do feel like our homes.  But not like our apartment.  And not like the farm.

I have tried to figure out why this is so.  Is it my desk, all so orderly with everything in the right place?  Is it the Library with all our  best books? Or is it that the furniture has been with us for a long time?  Perhaps it is the music stand I bought in Kensington in 1973 that warms my heart?  Certainly our best furniture is here.  But neither of us are tied to possessions, and we certainly are not tied to place.  At least we thought.  Other folks seem totally attached to place and we are told their families have been in town for five generations.  But our families have always moved someplace else for one reason or another.  We actually don't quite understand this attachment to one area.  But we know we are always happy to be home.

Our journey yesterday went well.  Again Continental Airline treated us well, with a young person waiting to transport Ken in a wheelchair to the connecting flight.  Two weeks later, Ken was much more able to withstand the travel.  So we were both pleased with the journey to Mexico.  Today Ken walked in the grocery store while I was shopping.  Too cold to walk outside!!