True Home

That old truism - "Home is where the heart is" - is taking on a different meaning these days.  All this moving around requires a loosening of my heart around what is home.  A reorganization of something profound.  There's a deep inner structure of "home" within all of us, no matter what our circumstances.  Home is internal and external, stabilizing or destabilizing. Whether we grew up in one place, moved around, or didn't have a home.  For 32 years, home was my career, as well as my place.  I swore I'd never be a Balabusta (yiddish word for homemaker) like my mother, but that's exactly what I did. Balabusta-ing is Martha Stewart-ing.  Making home was my art.  I put my heart and soul into creating a space where the home was the center of the family, the kitchen was the center of the home, and guests were always welcome.  There's been a tremendous amount of movement, physical and psychic, since the break up of my marriage.  Now, it is time to shift even further.  Not just to find a new physical place, but to allow a different way of being home to come forth.  There is a breath of relaxation, comfort and support when we truly come home.  An expansion.  And all the variations of contraction when home is a place of discord.  Or when there is homelessness, a profound and growing situation that provokes deep fear and anxiety.  Or war and violence that force people from their homes.  The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) cites a figure of 65 million refugees in the world today.  I am only one generation away from the forced WWII exile of my parents.  Even when we are not ourselves at risk, we are all affected.  So how do we breathe and release into the beauty of true home? How do we let fear wash through and not root in our tissue?  What is it that creates true home?  It's a question we answer for ourselves and together.