Every time I enter my front door, even before turning the key in the lock, my eyes rest for a moment on the small engraved stone nestled in the feathers of foxtail fern planted in an urn beside the door. I take the word into the house with me, breathe deeply, and am grateful once more for being home. The house itself is only a container for this awareness, though tucked into baseboards and behind walls throughout its rooms are small scripture cards which we placed as the house was built. The walls are only reminders, with their glad burdens of family pictures and framed statements of faith and hope. Home is God-given surety inside me. I love coming home.
“And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home.”
-Wendell Berry
Stones and Feathers 
Thank you for this peaceful and graceful post. For someone serving away from home at the moment, it is especially beautiful.
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Sonja, when I sit down to write in my gratitude journal everyday, there is often something that relates to home. One year I kept a daily journal just about home. I empathize with your ‘home away from home” because we have moved so many times. “Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.” (Herman Melville)
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