There's no place like ...

... home!  This week, I'm giving a shout out to Dorothy and her little dog, too, as a self-imposed tornado has sent my house spinning.  As I mentioned last week, my husband and I are making long overdue improvements to our home.  The carpets in which my children have abused beyond saving are being ripped out for more durable flooring.  Besides spilling juice and potty training accidents, recently they sealed the carpet's fate by rubbing blue colored glue stick into its fibers.  I laughed deliriously and my children thought I had lost my mind clearly confused over not being held accountable.

Actually, I am seriously questioning my sanity judging by the state of our home at this moment.  Choas reigns in the form of stacked furniture.  Once the changes are complete, I'm sure we'll be saying, "How did we ever stand it before?"  I think it has to do with getting stuck in a rut.  Sometimes keeping the status quo is so mindlessly easy, we overlook any unpleasantness that accompanies it.  It takes real effort, something like the sweeping force of a tornado, to escape the rut.

And so, in being sucked up by the winds of change, my children, our dog and I are saying, "We're not in Kansas anymore."  Actually, we're ten minutes away at my parents' house and still in Pennsylvania, but you get the point.  Being away, I find myself thinking a lot more about this place we call our home.

The notion of "home" has a universal appreciation.  Certainly from movies, such as The Wizard of Oz,  to literature to music and art, the theme of "home" has a powerful presence.  In my own writing, in Going Barefoot in Greener Grass, my characters'  homes on Orchard Lane begin the story, provide refuge as the drama unfolds and act as the setting for the final chapter.  I believe the reader gets a feeling of security to trust the twists and turns the author provides if the main character's home is defined and acknowledged.   Look at how The Wizard of Oz gets its emotional payoff by the audience relating to Dorothy's desire to return home.

"Home" can represent our roots and define who we are.  As adults, where we decide to call 'home" can be the way we define and express ourselves.   "Home", whether old or newly found, gives us our foundation for constructing the rest of our lives.  If our home is in disarray, so too goes our lives.  No matter how I had denied it, that old carpeting had been depressing to live upon.  I anticipate the new clean flooring will add a lightness to my mood.  Now, if only I had a pair of ruby red slippers to click together and complete the work!

No matter where it is or in what condition, it's difficult to object that there truly is "no place like home".