Sort of Home

My sister got married.

I went home to Memphis and I got to hang out with my family (I even got to speak with my brother on the phone). I got to 'be home.' And I still hold that despite how much I love Memphis, and love my family, and how much I will always feel as though Memphis is home, I'm just not ready to return to Tennessee. I don't know that I ever will be. I think me and Tennessee might just get along better as casual aquaintances rather than as live-in roommates.

Memphis is the 'home is where your heart is' sort of home. It is not the 'home is where you hang your hat' sort of home. I can't say why that is, exactly, only that it is.

Because, dude, this was a pretty good trip. I got to see all sorts of friends and family. I got to go to huge parties. I got to drink lots of alcohol. I got to hang out with my son and his parents. I got to enjoy the company of my parents and my sisters. I got to eat good food, and dance with family, and reap the benefits of my uncles pressuring my husband to dance with me. I got to welcome a whole new branch of people into my family. I got to go to places I'd not been in many years. I got to experience the city for what it is at its best. Memphis just does not get better than it has been over the past week.

And yet... Here I am back in Chicago. And here I am making plans for the future, which will include a whole new location to be called home. Don't ask. I don't know.

It was great coming back to work. Things are mad-crazy here at the pantry, and apparently will continue to be mad-crazy until after Christmas. We served two hundred and sixty-one families yesterday. This morning when I got in to work, twenty people were already outside waiting. I love my job. I love being able to say I love my job and really meaning it. I love being able to help people, being able to talk to people, being able to listen. I love being able to do something good.

I'm comfortable here, with my job, with my neighborhood, with my people. Maybe this-- the job, the vocation, the service-- is the 'home is where your heart is' sort of home. And that's a transient sort of home that I will follow and that will follow me. Maybe Memphis is the 'home is where you're loved' sort of home, and that is a pretty awesome sort of home.