LEMON-AIDE

Yesterday morning I woke filled with worries.  I did what I often do to help me let go…to find calm within this life that can hold more than our tiny human shoulders can carry.  I went to my shelf of poetry books and flipped through one until I found a poem that’s heart spoke to mine.  Below is the one I found yesterday.  It was written by an extraordinarily wise and talented ten year old girl named Sarah Hodges.

Home
by, Sara Hodges

Home is a place
in a land
in a town
in a house
in a room
in me.
Home is the place
I come home to.
Home is a place
where I can just sit
and think.
Home is a place
inside by the fire
where I watch the flames
or read a book
or outside by a tree
in a sweet little place
that I love to be.
Home is a place
in a land in a town
in a house in a room
in me.

As a homebound someone, my home is my little world.  After reading this poem,  the walls of my house, that can often feel like they have me trapped, felt as if they were arms that were gently holding me.  I am reminded that there is a place that troubles and chronic illness cannot touch, a place where I can set down my worries and let my shoulders (my mind) rest… a place I can get to without stepping out my front door…because its right here within me…

Thankgiving is a week from today; I’m glad to have read this poem in preparation.  Its  time to rest- more than usual…time  to let go of worries and hang out in the home “in me”… so that when my children come home, my parents come to be with us, I have “me” to share.  I feel incredibly grateful to have walls around me and love within them.

Happy Thanksgiving, may you feel as well as you possibly can and wherever you are, whether with others or alone…may you feel the peace of “home”.   Kerry

*This poem is from the book, Where the Heart Is, edited by Julienne Bennett and Mimi Luebberman.