Home - January 5, 2020

I created Living ROI as a passion, to share my experiences and support others who want to live more authentic, joyful and fulfilling lives.

Dear Friends,

My youngest daughter is getting on a plane tonight. We had a wonderful time together as a family over the holidays, and she loved seeing her friends, but she is ready to go “home.” Right now, home for her is Spain. She is going to school there, has friends, a place to live and soon she will have a job there, too. It is the place where she has purpose and meaning.

I remember the feeling of going “home” to where I grew up and where my parents still lived, after I had left for college. It was always exciting to get there; and when the time came, I was ready to leave, too. It was an unsettled feeling. An in-between time. A realizing that “home” can be transient.

We traveled a lot when our kids were young. Twice we moved for several months to another country (Spain and India) with just one suitcase each. We found that home transitioned quickly to the apartment or house we lived in for those months. Our girls went to school there, met friends and played. We got into our routines and rhythm, and it was home.

I’ve lived in four countries and my husband has lived in five. In each location we were home.

For me, home is not a place. Home isn’t even associated with specific people. Home is where you create meaning, friends and memories.

Home is not one place, never has been.

Home is everywhere your feet have wandered,
every place where you have laughed or drank or slept
or kissed. Home is in the faces of the ones you love.
Home is the hearts beating in their chests, calling for you
to return again. Home is wherever you claim it as your own.

And so you are never lost, just wandering. Finding, rediscovering,
claiming all the places you now belong. And always will.

-Marisa Donnelly

I have two homes now, and I carry “home” with me to each. Regardless of who else is there, it is home when I am there.

I remember my mother telling me that when she met my father, she felt at home. I felt the same thing when I met my husband. It’s not that he is home, it’s that I feel at home with him wherever we are. In fact, even when we aren’t together physically.