One of the best feelings in the whole world is when I turn off of Mullan Rd and enter the on-ramp to the freeway … I’ve logged off the computer, turned off the lights, and locked the office door behind me … my work is done for the day, and I am FREE! It feels like all my burdens of the day roll off my shoulders as I enter the fast track toward home. In these dwindling days of autumn, the last rays of the sunset still streak the sky in front of me as I head home, although I know soon that I will be going home enveloped in darkness. The beautiful sounds of the radio caress my tired brain, and I can’t stop smiling and singing along knowing what lies ahead – a hot meal from my mama, comfy clothes, an afghan, Facebook, and … of course studying (I think about that last! ;).

Isn’t it a wonderful thing to have a place called home? A place of comfort and acceptance – a place of warm welcome, of a family filled with laughter and good conversation, of good food and a cozy bed … of a place saturated with all the things that make up YOU? I have written probably 20 or more journal entries of me coming home from visiting other places (be it another friend’s house or halfway around the world) … commemorating the feeling over and over of “no place like home.” No matter how much I love exploring the world and visiting those I love, I love even more the return to familiarity and sameness – to a place where all my toiletries can stay in the bathroom cabinet (not in my duffel bag!) … where everything is just where I put it … where I can run to the kitchen and eat my comfort food of cereal or toast at will … where I can put in my own music and dance around my own room or run out into my own backyard and gaze up at the stars in this little corner of the world God has given me. After so many times of moving, I couldn’t be more thankful for having lived in this same house for the past 7 years … it has become my home like none other, as has Spokane. I love it more with each passing year, and I strongly feel that no matter where I may roam in this world, I will always end up back in Spokane, for it is the homiest of homes I’ve been to.

On my way home … the drive gets ever so sweeter the closer I come to this little white and green house and the blue bedroom inside I call my own. Here is where all worries and cares can be left behind – or shared with those who care about me – and I can take a little rest and respite before the next busy day begins. Yes, I’m coming home.