The house that built me

I heard this song tonight. The house that built me, by Miranda Lambert. Beautiful beautiful song. I'v spoken many times about seeking "home". As, I have just moved again, I look back at my life and realized that I have had many homes. Some longer than others. Some temporary. Some more permenant. The home in Las Cruces is what I would call home because it probably has the greatest memories of my "growing up" years.

The first home I can remember is 325 Dutton Dr. It has a ring to it and always will. Being up here in Idaho, I've driven by it on several occassions. That two story house on the end of the street looks so different than when I was a girl. The street has grown and although there are small details that remind me of that place, it has changed in the last 30 years. Then there was the home (apartment) that Jody and I shared for a time in Arizona. What memories that place had. The night I drove into town to go to my new home, my parents decided to divorce. Of course they never did, but it was a night I will never forget. Then that old trailer home in Clarence, NY. Our beautiful, quiet, first married home. I remember coming back from our honeymoon in sandals and it had snowed. Walking up the driveway with frozen feet. So glad to be home. Then the yellow house on McKinley. With the huge Pine tree I dreamed of putting Christmas lights on. The tree is gone. The memory remains.

But the home, the home that really built me was more than just temporary. The home where my lilac tree lives. The home where the leaves fall in abundance, the apple trees produce, the turkeys venture through, the deer lurk, the woodchuck in his wood pile. The home with so many memories. A home where lives started and ended. The home where angels watch over. Children have grown into adults. Rooms have been shifted, painted, reorganized. Pictures exchanged, relocated, renewed and sometimes replaced.

That home molded me. The home at one time I couldn't wait to leave, I yearn to return. The home that built the heart and soul of a family I love. They say, a home is where the heart is. That is true. I've had many homes and it is what you make of it during the time those walls protect. But sometimes, it's the home that makes you. Life between the walls, that even in silence you can hear the memories.

I love that home. I love that Dawson will always, I mean always, have that home to build upon. It's a foundation that will never falter. Its a bit of heaven on earth. Lord, thank you for that home.