Going Home

You never can really go home.  Or can you?

One of the inevitabilities of getting older is that you have more past to reflect upon.  New friends enter while others move on. You experience changes in pop culture, fashion fads, and shifts in political thought. You can even track the changes if you watch close enough. I see them happening around me every day.  I see my hair slowly thinning (thanks for the genes mom and dad), I feel time pass more quickly (grandma was right), and I can see the people and places around me transform into something new with each passing day.

Every once in a while, I indulge myself and allow for some time to really delve into my past.  I’ll go on Google Earth and zoom in on places I’ve lived to see how what they look like now.  Sometimes things look familiar. Sometimes they look drastically different. I was able to see the remains of what was once the Cloward Family cabin in Northern Utah.  The building, and old converted Mormon church my Grandparents purchased from the LDS church no longer belonged to my family when it burned to the ground. Seeing the remains in a picture taken from a satellite miles above the planet confirmed the feeling that I can never revisit this place. Pictures and the memories I have of this building and the many weekends and summer days I spent there are all that remain of a place that was so much a part of my childhood.

What is it about looking back on the past that makes us so nostalgic? Is it the sense of lost time that will never be regained? Maybe it’s just that we don’t remember the heartaches as much as we remember the joyful occasions. Whatever the cause, the past can become a potent pill that, when taken, can drug a person into a comma of reminiscing that may last hours or even days. Although it’s important to learn from the “good old days,” I believe it’s even more important to look to the future. Future opportunities are more exciting than past ventures, and the future is still in our control.

I’ve moved eleven times in my life, yet I’ve always been able to find comfort in the people around me. I believe people need people, and I’ve been fortunate to be able to create small pockets of friends wherever I go. We are able to lean on one other when times are not as good as we hope they will be. Friends may change with time, but I’ve found that relationships built on strong foundations can endure, no matter what time may bring.

It is said that home is where the heart is. In a sense, home is wherever you need or want it to be. It can be people, a building, a city, or a place of employment. With everything that changes, home provides stability, something to hold on to.  It can be re-associated with new surroundings and people as the world around us changes. If we’re willing to put in the effort, it is something we can have complete control over.  We have the ability to make a home wherever we’re at. 

My advice is to learn from, but don’t dwell on the past.  Spend your time looking toward the future. Surround yourself with good people, and you’ll find that no matter how the world changes you can always go home.

What are your thoughts?