Home

Reading week is approaching, and many of our seminary friends and classmates are heading home for the week. Several have spouses in home cities; others have family in the location they left; and all of us have dear friends "back home". So, there are status updates and conversations about leaving to go home or, at this point in the week, having safely arrived there.

Since arriving at 85 Templeton Way in July, I have logged a lot of hours wishing to go back to Denver, missing my family in New York, and more generally wanting to be almost anywhere but Sewanee, TN. I have compiled mental lists of all of the gross, annoying, bothersome things associated with living here. I have cursed the mold, the mildew, and the sogginess of the ground while yearning for the desert climate I left behind. I have had beautiful dreams of the beautiful grass in beautiful Denver.

And I realized today, "This is home."

As far as I know, we will still return to Colorado after Jordan's three year stint at seminary. I still miss my dear friends in Denver, and I still sometimes wish that I had my family close by me. The gross, annoying, bothersome things (here) are still gross, annoying and bothersome. But I am home.

When I walk into my house, it smells like my house. (Admittedly, that's not always a pleasant thing!) I have established those corners of disorganization that function as a catchall for things I want to put out of reach or out of the way of other members of my household. I know where I'm going. I understand the abbreviations and nicknames common to the community. (I'll write another entry on that another time.)

This place - the town, the school, even my house - is home as I have never known it before. I feel loved ... nurtured ... mentored ... welcomed. The love is Christ's love. It is a love that asks for nothing in return and demands no change in me. It is freely and gently given with genuine gratitude for God's love for us. It doesn't always accompany friendship or fondness, and, yet, it is truly love. The nurture is not condescending or chastising. It has been at turns practical and mystical. I have felt the prayers ascending to Heaven like incense. The mentoring is at once humble and wise. It is as if folks have intentionally brought me alongside them and still retained the understanding that they know what I do not. The welcome transcends "inclusiveness" and "tolerance". It is the welcome that marks true Spiritual hospitality. The community, as one, has broken its circle and made a place for us.

And that place is home. Sewanee truly is a special place, and I am deeply grateful that we were called here to call it home, if just for a season. I pray that what we are given here, we will give to the next place that we call 'home'.