I am always out and
about. I am just about never home. My friends and family have said one too many
times to me that they are unable to get a hold of me. I am notorious for never picking up my phone
because I am on the phone all day at work that I do not even want to hear the
sound of the ringtone at home. My text
messages have become shorter and far and few in between with even fewer
people. If I am home, I always doing
something at—cleaning, cooking/baking, organizing, and, essentially, always
DOING something. For me, there is ALWAYS something to do. But, something changes
when you turn and well into your 30’s and marching forward to 40’s. It isn’t a sudden change. It is a slow change. It is change you do not even realize that it
is happening and that YOU are happening in the process. Going out and about until the crack of dawn
no longer is appealing or really feasible.
Rather, staying at home envelopes you in a glow of happiness and cozy
comfort. Loud crowds and hustle and
bustle with those you are not so familiar with fades into a great and new need
to spend time alone, one on one, or with the extremely small circle that has
come to be as we get older. FOMO (FEAR
OF MISSING OUT) begins to dissipate and is replaced with FOTO (FEAR OF TIME
OUT) with time rushing and running so fast that there is no way you can even
try to keep up. It is change in joy and
that the ordinary and everyday that we can so easily take for granted is the
truly extraordinary. It is a change in
priorities in your life because, after all, we all have the same amount of time
in the day but not the same priorities. This past Wednesday, I was
forced to stay home because Mother Nature unleashed her fury and wrath in an unexpected
and most dreaded snowstorm that came after trees were uprooted, wires downed,
broken traffic lights, and power outages.
In the midst of the worst, I saw the best where I bonded with complete
strangers who were now forced to turn to love and loved ones rather than
technology in a time of need. Staying
home and connecting with complete strangers who would now be familiar faces made
me realize just how much of a homebody I have become. I can blame it on the 30’s and getting older,
but it isn’t that. It is this: I am
becoming a homebody, and I am loving peace, harmony, quiet, calm, and simple more
than ever. In 30 years of my life, I
have had the great gifts and privilege to travel around to many different
places. I have treasured every wonder in
the world as I wandered. However, I have
found that the greatest place that I never really valued or even discovered was
home. I never realized the richness and
wealth in just lounging lazily on my couch with a furball on my lap, reading a
good book, me stirring cake batter at the kitchen table, the aromatic scents of
a home cooked meal, the warmth of the oven radiating on me on a cold winter
night, chatting on the phone with a good friend as I am sprawled on my bed, or watching
and witnessing the magic of a full moon and fat snowflakes falling to make a
white blanket right outside my window. I
never understood how sitting with my father at the kitchen table I grew up
around and over a home cooked meal is such happiness. I never cherished the car rides with my
sister right here in the Hudson Valley under the bluest of skies and fluffiest
of clouds. And, I do not mean home in
the walls that are covered with my family and friend’s photos or the kitchen
cabinets that are filled with cooking essentials and tools. I mean HOME in the little that means a lot
and sense of community and connecting with and understanding myself, neighbors,
family, and few friends. I mean HOME in
the right here and now, in the present as the greatest gift. I do not ever see myself losing my
wanderlust, adventurer, and zest for life self.
I am now just expanding and including the ‘HOME’ side to me that
deserves a place for me to embrace. Discovering
and understanding yourself is NOT necessarily found around the world, but can be right
at home—which can be one of the most daunting and yet comforting places of
all. Our views and ideas of joy
and happiness changes as we get older and as our priorities change. Were you always a traveler? Or, were you
always a homebody? How have your
priorities changed that impact your very own happiness and understanding of you
and your surroundings? Does something
change in our 30’s when it comes to joy and happiness? What is happiness to you now as opposed to
when you were younger? Keep smilin’, Mary ;-) |
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