During this comfortable, complacent and grateful season of the year with the
holidays looming just ahead, it’s nice to reflect on Home Sweet Home – if we are
blessed to have one in this day and age. Maybe this is a good time to reflect on just
what all goes into making a home a Home Sweet Home.
It’s pretty much common knowledge that exercising, walking or physically working hard will build strength in the body. Likewise, praying, meditating and doing kind deeds builds spiritual strength. So, what exactly builds the strength of what we consider a HOME? Planning one (as anyone can tell you that has built one) and then the building of it, one board at a time takes time, a lot of time, and energy.
It also takes time, a lot of invested time AT HOME to make Home. The more hours in the days or weeks that the Keeper of the Home is away, the more the home can deteriorate and loose it’s strength, just as the longer the body is sedentary, the faster it looses its strength. The less time put into prayer and conversations with God, the weaker the spirit. And so on... Keeping in mind that resting and relaxing are a crucial part of building strength. Neither a body, a mind nor a spirit can continue to work without rest. Even a strong tree will break if it can’t bend with the wind.
The old saying that “quality time is better than quantity time” depends entirely on what you are building or doing. It certainly doesn’t work if you are building a home, a family life or a way of life. If you spend one hour vigorously cleaning a home and then leave it for days, it may well be clean when you return. But a lack of human physical presence has left it empty. Empty is cold and, well, empty. If you spend quantity time at home cleaning and messing it up, cleaning and messing it up, the very presence of yourself or a family is what lights it up, strengthens the invisible walls, and makes a house a Home. And that also goes for someone who lives alone and/or with a pet(s).
It’s not the work, the money, the decorations, the elegant table, the spotless floors or the crackling fireplace that make a house a home. It’s the presence of the Homemaker that keeps the family together and strengthens the Home. It’s the presence of the Keeper of that Home that feeds the spirits of any children, teenagers or others who are blessed to live there, and strengthens this beautiful place called HOME. It is every meal prepared and served, every hug that is given, every quarrel that is settled, every sick child that is rocked, every eye that is dried, every button that is mended, every floor that is swept, every diaper that is changed, every teenager that is forgiven and every kiss that is given that makes and strengthens the Home.
The very walls speak to this Homemaker each time she enters her own domain. She knows how it feels to come home to an empty house after being gone all or part of the day. She remembers why the sweet aroma of coffee wasn’t calling her as she entered, or the scent of food bubbling from a pot on the stove wasn’t there to invite her in, or a warm fireplace or heater did not beckon her to come near. Unless there was someone caring for the young children, there where none laughing and hugging and calling her name when she entered. The Homemaker wasn’t there to bid her welcome.
It is all these little things and so much more that are what strengthens the Home.
And the more we are present there, the stronger it will be.
~ Gwen of IRISH ACRES
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