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This week there’s been high drama on our road; a quiet, tree-lined Cobourg street where seldom does anything new or interesting ever happen.  The couple directly across the road from us sold their home to their next-door neighbours.  It is to be the marital home of their daughter and her newlywed husband.  Today the exchange of keys took place on the lawn; hugs all-round, congratulations and fond farewells expressed and we witnessed the finale of one dream and the fresh newness of the next in the exact same instant.  First and last acts of the same play but with different actors — jubilation on the one side and a discretely wiped tear on the other.  

High excitement indeed for such a very young couple.  Her dad, through an old neighbour’s friendship, bought them a house where everything’s familiar, indeed, almost exactly where she grew up.  Does that help, or hinder the beginning of a marriage, do you suppose, living in full view of the windows in her parents’ house?  

This interplay sparked thoughts of all the lovely intricacies of houses and homes.  For instance, how soon does a house become a home?  Is it after the furnishings arrive?  Is it after it has been redecorated?  Is it after the first Christmas?  Or perhaps when the first child is brought home?  

Actually I believe it’s none of those.  For me, home has never been the building I live in. Home has always been my relationships with people I’ve lived with – first my Mum and Dad and now my Cam – who’ve all filled my heart and my life with joy and love and peace.  There’s a symbiotic connection between what happens in our homes and what happens within our communities.  I hope this young couple find joy and peace in their hearts and in their new home and that it finds its way back into our beloved Cobourg community.   

Relationships are at the heart of any home. Relationships seem to be at front of mind for me this week and I’ve just read the loveliest blog post by one of my favourite bloggers, Christie Hawkes.  Her blog is titled So What? Now What? and the post is titled But the greatest of these is love – revisited  It is well-written and thought-provoking and I’m quite sure that many of you will thoroughly enjoy reading it too.  One of the most intriguing elements of Christie’s posts is that she always (almost always?) ends with “Your Turn” where she challenges her readers to take action of their own.  This week’s challenge – to nurture one of your neglected relationships.  

The essence of creating or finding a home is togetherness and that commonality that begets those wonderful feelings of safety, security and affection, where the deepest, truest love resides.    

As to the youthful twain across the road, their front door was left unshut all afternoon, their homespun dreams and plans almost palpable amid all their scrubbing and cleaning and giggling.

’Til next time, y’all…