Where's Home?

"Home is where your heart is."  "Home is where you hang your hat."  I remember my Aunt Betty Jo saying, "A house with love has rubber walls.  There is always room for one more and the noise is absorbed."  There are hundreds probably thousands of quotes about home.  Some say you can never go back.  Others say you will always gravitate back. 

At our front door.

During our recent visit to the US I over heard Roberto say, "This doesn't feel like home anymore.  Our home is in Saudi."  It took me by surprise at first since it is his 1st time to live outside of the US and it's only been 6 months, but then I can also relate.  I've traveled to many countries, lived in 3 outside of the US, my friends are scattered, and each time I return it feels less natural to be there.  It's just not the same. There are always some things that have changed since I was last there and I've changed as I experience new and different places, people, and cultures.

So where's home?  Roberto loves his work and the people he works with.  We've made lots of friends and are enjoying life here.  However, no matter how long we stay, we will never be Saudi.  I loved my work and friends in Afghanistan, but I was never going to be Afghan.  So where's home?

I think this one is most true for me:

“For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.”

~ Stephanie Perkins

Below are few more quotes as people have tried to answer that question along with more photos of our Villa in Saudi.  Add a comment and let us hear your favorite quote about home.  

The street we live on inside our compound.

 "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in."

~ Roberto Frost

“Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?”

~ Stephanie Perkins

Our Villa from the street.

“Home is the nicest word there is.”

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”

~ Robin Hobb

Our back patio.

“Well, sometimes home is a person.”

~ Beth Revis

“It’s funny. When you leave your home and wander really far, you always think, ‘I want to go home.’ But then you come home, and of course it’s not the same. You can’t live with it, you can’t live away from it. And it seems like from then on there’s always this yearning for some place that doesn’t exist. I felt that. Still do. I’m never completely at home anywhere.”

~ Danzy Senna