Dec 24 2008
Home Is Where the Heart Is
Winter can be a crying time of year.
The long dark days.
The feeling that time has slipped away and what have we done with it?
It seems as if everyone else is wrapped up in the warmth of family.
The year draws to a close and we reflect on our lives.
Of what we have done
and haven’t done
We remember whom we have loved
or were afraid to love.
Everyone around us seems to be heading home – flying, driving, taking the train…just heading back home.
“Going home for the holidays!” they say.
We think about our family. It doesn’t make us think of home.
We have no place to call home. We feel alone.
You walk into the deli and Nate, the stocky owner with the hairy arms says, “The usual?”
“Yeah, ” you reply, thinking of the roast beef on rye, no mayo, and extra mustard, that spicy kind with the little grains. You watch as he deftly slathers, cuts, and wraps your sandwich, snapping open a brown paper bag. You begin to protest as you watch him place a brownie in the bag. “Dessert’s on me! Merry Christmas!”
You’re on the way to work, trying not to slip on the icy sidewalk as you head to your favorite coffee shop. The windows are painted on the inside with a Christmas scene and the warm air causes you to sneeze. Gennifer spots you, gives you a quick smile. You know she’s Gennifer-with-a-G from a long ago chat when there was no one else in the shop and you didn’t have to rush. She’s busy making the coffee drinks while someone new is taking your order.
It’s only when you ‘re sipping the coffee at your desk that you notice that Gennifer had drawn a little smiley face next to your name on the cardboard cup.
You’re coming home from a long day. You’re beat. You’re hanging up your coat when you hear the doorbell ring. You look through the peephole. It’s a neighbor. You open the door. The neighbor has a package in his hands. He says, “This was left in front of your door. I didn’t want anyone to take it so I picked it up, hope you don’t mind.”
Your door can be seen from the street. “Wow. Thanks. Of course I don’t mind.” you say.
The waitress. The bus driver. The newspaper guy. The security guard at the office. The nod, the smile, the small exchange of words. So many people.
So many people just like you.
You are not alone.
Home is where the heart is.
See the heart and make yourself at home.
BONUS PODCAST!
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I love the flow of this post. Truly amazing. Don’t you like when people ask you, “the usual?” They know your drink and/or order. But they may not know your name. But they give you that knowing smile and they even notice when you may not be around for some time.
Yes, home is where the heart is.
Thank you, Ms. Q, for putting into words the feelings that so many of us feel at this time of the year.
UT: I do like it when people ask me if I want “the usual”! So many times we feel we don’t “count” or matter and yet someone out there notices you! Like you said, they notice you haven’t been around for a while. It’s very nice.
Thank you for complimenting me on the post. I always feel a bit of a blush when you write nice things about my writing. Thanks! You have a way of making me feel like my writing matters.
Jake: I’m glad you liked this. I spent some time and many tries writing this from poetry to this darker effort. Then I literally slept on it and it started to come together and then it..wrote itself.
So Very Well Said.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Hope you’re having a great Christmas MsQ, at least what’s left of it
A wonderful podcast and write up. Home is indeed where the heart is.
Funny you should say this because I just got through watching a silly but very fun action film from the 80s called Big Trouble in Little China with Kurt Russell. At the end Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) asks one of the elder China town sorcerers where he’s going for a much needed vacation. Jack suggests that maybe he go to China to visit the mother land. The elder, named Egg says, “China is in the heart Jack, no matter where I go she is there.”
I come to your blog and see the same theme repeated here again in a very short time. Is this a sign?
Egg was right. You are right. Home is where the heart is.
Meleah: thank you! Happy holidays to you as well! Hope you’ve had some um, snuggle time!
Rolando: I had a very nice Christmas day spent with my dad. Now I”m back at work.
Ricardo: I remember that movie – very whacky! There was an actual “dragon lady” if I recall or maybe a beautiful Asian woman with the body of a snake?
Regarding seeing the idea of “home is where the heart is” as a sign…could be. I have gotten signs in my life. Usually they start out very low key. If it’s important, they get a bit more obvious just in case I missed it the 2nd or 3rd time. And then if I don’t act on the sign, I get um, the kick in the hindquarters or the whack upside the head depending. The universe seems to like the hindquarters version.
In your case only you know what it really means with respect to what is going on in your life right now.
Loved the song, and the ENDING was my favorite MsQ. Very sweet!
I am working in my picture files with shots I took yesterday. I always marvel at how the holidays go so quickly. When I think back to my childhood, it seemed Christmas was so eventful. Now they race by, and are over with the blink of an eye.
Sending some hugs in this comment for you. They are down below
hug hug hug hughug hug hug hug hug hug hug hughug hug hug hug hug hug hug hughug hug hug hug hug hug hug hughug hug hug hug hug hug hug hughug hug hug hug !!!!!
“I left a lot of them”
You’re thinking of The Golden Child with eddie murphy. LOL! That was another classic. But the guy who played Egg was in that movie too.
“In your case only you know what it really means with respect to what is going on in your life right now.”
Trying to figure that out.
Speedy!! [oooomphhh!] Ooooooh. Dizzy from all the hugs! Thanks!
Ricardo: You WOULD know the movie I was confused about and now it makes sense! I liked “The Golden Child” and Eddie Murphy in that movie. So..Eddie Murphy!
I wasn’t trying for some Asian Obscurity! “Be like the wind” (and that means…?)
Usually “signs” make sense later only because you see the big picture or context. I am not sure how “Home is where the heart is” combined with some Asian saying it fits in with what is going on with your life! Home and heart – where you heart is can be in so many places. For example, you heart may be in acting and your home in the theater. Totally guessing but that’s some idea.
Before I started this blog, I had given up on writing several times and then I had a long series of HINTS that I should start writing. And once I started writing (and I’ve wanted to be a writer since a little kid) and acknowledged I was a writer…I felt in some ways that I was “home” – true to myself. That’s where I was coming from with respect to your figuring out what a sign means to you.
But is it not strange that both films in discussion dealt with Chinese mysticism?
Perhaps there is something there for me to read up on? Perhaps these things will open up doors?
Oh Ms.Q dare I say….you have become my jewel of Asia.
Because your writing matters. So keep doing you and it.
Ricardo: I dunno about Chinese mysticism but the coincidence is interesting.
While I’m flattered at being your jewel of Asia I’m actually your jewel of America.
UT: Thanks. I’ll keep on keeping on!
Beautiful post…very touching.