{home} is where the heart is is
home. i love that word so much. home is family and love and laughing. it’s the ocean and salt and breeze. it’s running and biking and swimming. it’s everything that i love more than anything.
i just spent the best and most bittersweet days in florida with my family. it’s bittersweet because this is the last time i’ll be going {home} to florida for awhile. my dad is finally joining my mom in mississippi – she’s been there two years, anxiously waiting, hoping, praying for a job transfer to florida; they are finally tired of living apart.
i know {home} is where the heart is. i know mississippi will become our temporary home – and there will be family and love and laughing. but there’s something about florida that I don’t want to give up. it’s a part of who i am.
i took advantage of everything i love about our florida {home}
- running on the beach…
- followed by a swim in the ocean
- sun, and lots of it
- paddleboarding and kayaking
- swimming in the pool
- walking and laying in the sand…
- picking up seashells and beach glass
- riding around in the Jeep, with no top – and music blaring
- eating Dakine Diego’s and Doubles
- laughing, a lot
- wheatgrass shots
- bike rides around TI and on the beach
- love, and more than enough to go around
That’s great news that your dad will get to be with your mom again at least. I don’t consider the city I grew up in as home really. But what I miss about it is that my family is all there.
Sounds like you enjoyed every moment!
It looks like heaven. I am sorry you will not be able to be back to FL. for awhile. I completely understand not wanting to give a special place up. I have so much to say to you right now.. wishing I could be sitting across from you at WF or on a long run with you. Huge hug
this post made me cry! i can completely and absolutely relate to every bit of what you are saying. home for me is the beach too. my parents bought a beach house in bethany beach delaware the year i was born. every summer after school got out we would pack up and live there all summer long. we moved a few times throughout my childhood, but the beach was a constant home. it is where my heart is. when i was 23 my parents sold that house and bought a home in florida (sanibel island). it was so hard for me and my sisters when they made that decision, but now i have realized that home is not just about the specific location (though every year we return to bethany for a week and my heart is so so happy – especially sharing it with my children! talk about heaven). now visiting sanibel holds such a special treasure for me. my heart longs to be there. and truly, any beach will almost do for me. we are in va beach now, my inlaws live right on the ocean here, and i truly love it here. i know that one day robert and i will call the beach HOME -somewhere – it is just where i am meant to be. and i mean that with all of my heart.
i am so happy you had such a wonderful visit at home with your family. i know it will be so hard to not go back for a while like that, but i also believe what’s meant to be always finds a way. sending you lots of love!!!
Great post!
I always feel guilty when I’m around my hubs and say “home” while referring to NY. I know that the hubs and I have lived in Maryland for five years now and we own our house now, but home will always and forever be my little, rural New York lakeside house.
Home for me is San Francisco. Although I wasn’t born here, I’ve spent the last 13 years running all over the place. Literally and figuratively.
Love the pink BTW
wait did I miss something??? are you moving to Mississippi???
Defining where my home is, is tough for me. I grew up in Germany and all my family is still there. Germany formed me the way I am, I am super organized and detailed and on time. Germany will always be deep down in my heart and it formed me.
I came to the US 7 years ago without any friends and family and this move really helped me to find who I am and what I want. I really settled down here and feel the most relaxed and happy here. So I guess America is my home now 🙂
I know my mom will eventually leave Cleveland and when she does, I will be sad. I mean – let’s get real- Cleveland is not Florida but it is where I grew up and spent many of my formative years. So, when I return – it just feels comfortable and I have a sense of security that I don’t feel anywhere else. Life is an adventure though and change is constant.