@HomewithDean - Homily 7/11 - a podcast by KFI AM 640 (KFI-AM)

We’ve been talking all morning about how to use a house to tell an aspirational story of what it means to be home. It is one of the most powerful stories that can be told because for most of us there is a dream that is home. They say that owning a house is part of the American dream. I suppose that’s true, but I believe the real American dream is not a house but rather a home.

Home is always very tangible to us but not necessarily concrete. Home seems to be a series of increasingly smaller circles wherein the smaller the circle gets the deeper my familiarity becomes, the deeper my comfort becomes, the deeper my sense of ease and belonging becomes, and therefore the deeper my sense of home becomes.

Lots of vacations are beginning to happen again. I’ve always felt the two most exciting days of a vacation are the day you leave and the day you come back home. When you return from traveling abroad and land in that first US airport—even if it’s just a layover on the other side of the country—there’s a sense that you’re back home. I always feel home when my feet touch US soil. Then I feel home again when I’m back in California. Then when I drop off the freeway into my town. Then my neighborhood and my street. Finally, my house, my dogs, my rooms, and all the way down to a circle the size of my favorite chair, my favorite sweater, and my own bed.

Home is that safe comfortable place where you are free of all other concerns but to simply be you. And if you are fortunate enough to have friends or even a best friend who accepts you as you are and wants to be with you when you’re just being you, then that’s the best kind of home of all.

That’s when you get to say, “Home is wherever I’m with you.”

For me, home feels best when we’re just out and about running errands, shopping for groceries, doing whatever, like Tina and I were doing yesterday. And my favorite part of all that is when we’re out of the car and walking across a big parking lot toward a store and I feel Tina’s hand slip into mine. It doesn’t happen because we plan it or discuss it or even think about it. It just happens because whenever and wherever we’re holding hands we’re home. So for me the smallest circle of home is just about the size of Tina’s hand. That’s pretty small. But in that tiny space is all the room I need to feel safe and free to just be me.

So yes, I’ll be here to help you get busy with the lumber and the paint and I’ll help you build a space that your life can rest comfortably inside. But always remember that a house is not a home. Home is a small but strong circle of relationships that embrace you, value you, and shelter you from the world. It’s those relationships that make all the difference. It’s those relationships that first and foremost, before the lumber and the paint, require your time and attention and care and maintenance and sometimes yes, even remodeling.

As the song says, “Home is wherever I’m with you.” It’s those relationships that are home. And it’s those relationships—not the house but rather the home–that I’m talking about at the end of our time together each week when I encourage you to get out there and build yourself a beautiful life.

Further episodes of KFI Featured Segments

Further podcasts by KFI AM 640 (KFI-AM)

Website of KFI AM 640 (KFI-AM)