What Is Home?

A house is not a home.”

Meghan Daum put it well:

“A house is not the same as a home. Home is an idea, a social construct, a story we tell ourselves about who we are and who and what we want closest in our midst. There is no place like home because home is not actually a place. A house on the other hand (or an apartment, a trailer, a cabin, a castle, a loft, a yurt) is a physical entity. It may be the flesh and bones of a home, but it can’t capture the soul of that home. The soul is made of cooking smells and scuffmarks on the stairs and pencil lines on a wall recording the heights of growing children. The soul evolves over time. The old saying might go, “You buy a house but you make a home,” but, really, you grow a home. You let it unfold on its own terms. You wait for it. Home is rarely in the mix the day we move into a new house. Sometimes it’s not even there the day we move out. It’s possible we should consider ourselves lucky if we get one real home in a lifetime, the same way we’re supposedly lucky if we get one great love.”

The famous poem penned by Lorraine M Halli still rings true:

What is a house?

It’s brick and stone

and wood that’s hard.

Some window glass

and perhaps a yard.

It’s eaves and chimneys

and tile floors

and stucco and roof

and lots of doors.

What is a home?

It’s loving and family

and doing for others.

It’s brothers and sisters

and fathers and mothers.

It’s unselfish acts

and kindly sharing

and showing your loved ones

you’re always caring.