redefining home

I have noticed, in the last couple of years, a shift in the definition of "home" for me...and I think it happens for everyone at some point in their lives. When we are kids, "home" is usually the place where our parents, or family, lives. When we think of going home, we think of going back to that place where we originated. All throughout my college years, and even in the years since, I have always considered my trips to Chattanooga "going home". But, lately, I find that going to Chattanooga is simply going to Chattanooga, and that returning to Nashville is what I consider "coming home". It's a simple shift in rhetoric, but I think it represents a larger shift in my heart. Perhaps it has happened because I recently purchased a house of my own, but maybe, and more likely, it is because I feel that I have established a family of sorts here...my heart has become connected to the friends and associates I have in Nashville, and even to the city itself. And I do not mean this in any way to belittle my family or my original home, because my family is more dear to me than anything else...but I have come to establish a home of my own-- a residence for my heart and soul, and it always feels good to come back...