Home

Home is the place where you know the dirt,

where you’ve stood in the rain and smelled the fresh earth,

watched the sun rise, and seen the grass grow,

buds open, flowers bloom, leaves fall, first snow.

And the winds come and go, and the seasons go ’round,

and before you know it, your heart has found

a place to rest; to put down roots, to build your nest,

to sink your sweat and tears and years,

to ground your dreams and hopes and fears,

to learn to live with the ones you love best –

time smooths the way and love does the rest.

The years pass, the trees grow, but the dirt stays the same,

and you learn the bugs and the birds by name,

the signs and the seasons, the rhymes and the reasons

of the place you call home

where you’ll raise your children to love the land,

to splash in the creek and play in the sand,

and walk in the woods, be they vast or small,

and know and care for their neighbours all.

You live and you love on a small patch of ground,

and make your own music to banish the sounds

of hate and despair and greed and war

but someday they may come and knock down your door

and you freeze, or you flee, you fight, or you weep,

and nightmares invade the haven of sleep.

So much is lost; is there anything left?

All your heart knows is an aching cleft

between then and now, rich and poor,

a place to call home and another closed door.

And you walk, or you swim, or you wait by the road,

or you suffer in place, if you’ve nowhere to go.

You cling to life and hope your strength holds,

you wonder how each new day will unfold,

and you toil and hope and fear and wait

with no solid ground beneath your feet.

Yet perhaps in exile you still find grace

in an outstretched hand, a friendly face,

and your heart breaks open to the light above

as you dare to take the risk of love.

And you start to make home in a strange new place,

in the little scraps of in-between space

where eye meets eye and hand joins hand,

and your feet find rock beneath shifting sands.

Home is not walls nor paper deeds,

home is washing a stranger’s feet.

Home is proclaiming your loyalty

to a king of the poor and the suffering.

Home is shedding long held-back tears

and finding the courage to stare down your fears,

to let down your hair amid those who cry shame,

and wait for the one who remembers your name,

for then you’ll be free wherever you go,

then deep peace can take root and grow,

then you’ll carry your home in your soul.