Is This Home?

I am finally getting used to my new home. It is becoming mine slowly and surely. I still don’t have my books unpacked nor do I have my pictures hanging on the wall nor do I have my rocks and other prized possessions on display, but my nesting instinct has caused this townhouse to become my town home.

One of the things about my new location is the drive up the mountain. We live in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, and I have to say, after being in a lot of places and seeing a lot of things, the Ozark Mountains are right there with other great mountains. I know that where I live, lacks the geographical dimensions to put it up there as being a real mountain, but when I look off the top and down at the rolling hills and babbling brooks, and I see the hawks and the occasional eagle soaring, I have to say these Mts. are as majestic as the Rockies or the Blue Ridge, they are contenders to earth’s great wonders.

There are these streams of water that roll off the side of the mountain and in the winter they freeze to form solid thick ice sticks. On the side of the road, it is common to see deer and coyotes and raccoons and large hawks. The trees, in the spring bloom out in beautiful pastels and in the fall the leaves change to the beautiful golden, red, yellow, and brown. IN the winter, the large bare trees have ice and lines of snow adorn their limbs.

And I am right in the middle of all of this natural wonder, yet we still have a huge library, excellent university, an arts center that continues to entertain us with plays, concerts, dance, and other forms of entertainment brought in from New York’s Broadway theaters, and I can drive about thirty minutes or so and be in Eureka Springs and see any form of hillbilly shows from musicals to comedies. I think, I am right where I have needed to be for a long time.

My question is what does it take to make a person feel at home? I guess my answer is it takes my stuff and my happiness. The big house that I left behind was my home but I am realizing that while it was my home, I never felt at home. I never felt really content. There was something more and I think that something more is here in the foothills of the Ozark Mts. I think home has to do with the heart and happiness. I am happy here in my little townhouse in these foothills. My heart is really content and I believe it has every bit to do with where the home is, like here in the hills, where I can look out on a cloudy day and see the clouds and in some cases look off the mountain and see the top of the clouds. Sometimes geography makes a difference.