A Place to Call Home

We moved every few years during my childhood and I have continued that trend into my marriage, at least so far. It's weird to line up all of the cities that have left a fingerprint on my life, no matter how fleeting. Some of the places I've called home include:

Salt Lake City, UT

Evanston, WY

West Lake Village, CA

Summit, NJ

Eaton Terrace, London

(this isn't my actual townhouse, but you get the idea)

Rue Duvivier, Paris

Ufa, Russia

Provo, UT

Gilbert, AZ

Highlands Ranch, CO

There were a few other cities and lots of other houses, but I don't remember them well. Or maybe I try not to remember them well because they were where the sad parts of my childhood occured. But in thirty-two years I've had the privilege of living in many, many happy homes. These were the places where I loved and felt loved. Where I learned what it means to heal and start over, to stretch in uncomfortable ways, to fall in love, to become a mother, and to become a family. These were the places where I learned about happiness.

We had our first baby while living in Riverside Condos in Provo. The night before we moved away to Phoenix I wandered from room to room remembering. The living room where we had hosted SO many parties. The kitchen where I learned from my mother-in-law to make rolls. The bathroom where I bathed my newborn for the first time, turning the faucet on her full blast to "rinse" her because I didn't know about sponge baths in the sink. I also said goodbye to the computer room where I wrote my Master's thesis in the months after my daughter was born. The nursery where I brought my baby home. Our bedroom with the lovely red wall, and a view of a storage facility and then the mountains behind. That night I tearfully sought closure with that home that was so good to us, and played such a vital role in the memory making of our little family.

Riverside Avenue, Provo

When I think back on our condo in Provo, and the other homes from my past, it reminds me that I need to work hard to fill every room of my current house with happy memories. It's a private goal of mine, I suppose, to leave every house feeling like that was where goodness and happiness revisited my family.

Which of the homes in your life feel the most like home?