A Longing for Home

Homesick: Longing for home and family while absent from them. 

Listening to a recent dinner conversation with a high school senior, one of the topics was homesickness. When others at the table went away to college, they didn’t think they would be homesick. They couldn’t wait to leave home. Homesickness was the furthest thing from their minds. 

Yet, in the early weeks of being away from home they realized they were homesick. They found themselves longing for people and places that were familiar before leaving home. 

Listening and later considering this conversation, I thought about how homesickness plays out in other ways as an adult. It isn’t limited to the experience of leaving home for the first time. It is the longing within a liminal space. Longing for what came before the watershed moments. 

Watershed moments can shake up the very foundations of what we know about ourselves. 

They can leave us feeling homeless even when we are still living in the same home or community. These moments can leave us questioning, wondering or re-evaluating what home is. 

Having just moved across the country, I find myself in a massive watershed moment. Things have changed. Everything has changed. And in the mystery of what hasn’t become clear yet is a sense of longing. Is it homesickness? Sometimes, yes. I do miss family and friends in the state I left. I miss knowing my way around. Knowing the community, neighborhoods, and streets. 

I find myself longing to hear a voice or see a face that is familiar – like bumping into someone I know in the grocery store. 

But in this city, my husband and I know one other person well. And we won’t bump into her in the grocery because we don’t live near the same store! 

This leaving, letting go, longing, leaning into what’s next is all the same cloth. Liminal spaces are uncomfortable. 

They call upon us to reflect on the past without dwelling there too long. (Or in the discomfort, without returning to that place that feels familiar but no longer fits). Liminal spaces also invite us to explore with our hearts towards a new future. 

Curiosity, exploration, wonder, waiting in the mystery of it all are the essential elements of seeking in a liminal season. In this season you get to ask yourself exciting questions: 

What is most important to you at this moment? 

Who can be supportive and encouraging without judging? 

Where can you stir your creativity? 

What inspiration touches your heart? 

In this season of in-between, look for the things that make your heart sing.