H is for House and Home

May 29, 2008 by Megan Lynae Leave a comment

Time was when I could have told you that H was for Hysterical Hamsters and you would have wasted a great deal of time scrolling, clicking, and muddling around in an attempt to prove me wrong. And now, it is a simpler process and as such, it keeps me honest. When I made this list, I had grand plans for each letter and its accompanying word. After all, the whole thing was originally referred to as “Le Grand Plan.” Dear, gentle reader, I must confess to you in shades of horror and embarrassment that I have no earthly clue as to what some of those things were going to be. H is for Home is one of them. So it will be changed to encompass House and Home, and this will not be splitting hairs. Of this I can assure you. And we’re off. By the way, did anyone else notice that it’s nearly June and I have not even done ten “letter posts?”

Things I know to be true about my Ohio home:

1. It is in Ohio
2. It has fun people in it
3. It has two living rooms (one of them being cleverly referred to as a family room)
4. It has a bunch of trees and a fairly large backyard
5. I don’t live there much

Things I know to be true about my Chicago home:

1. It is in Chicago
2. It has fun people in it
3. It doesn’t have any grass in the back yard, and it has a tree/ bush-ish thing
4. It has my stuff in it
5. I’m always there

And now, pursuant of a conversation I had with Sarah on Facebook (did anyone else know that Facebook has an instant messaging function in it? That webpage is poised to take over the world.) I am listing a few things that I have learned about myself from watching House, MD. Particularly the title character. It bears saying that there are obviously points of disconnect since I am not a 45-year-old male with a medical degree. But the human spirit tends to desire, mourn, and rejoice in recognizable patterns despite that.

1. It’s natural to grieve loss of mobility
2. The grief process will involve testing where the new limits are
3. There are deeper depths to fall to than the ones I have experienced: a). Drug addiction and b). Refusal to interact socially
4. Mobility issues can be, and usually are, overshadowed by a person’s abilities in other areas
5. Belief in something beyond yourself, without the expectation of any physiological miracles, is a positive thing

It is not my intent for these five point lists to sound flippant. There are multitudes upon multitudes of things that I love about both of my current homes (and my old Goshen one too) that I didn’t get into here. Home indicates safety to me. And not just physical safety, but emotional as well. Having havens of rest where I (for the most part) do not feel obligated to put on a show of some sort, are vitally important to me and I am sincerely grateful to the people in my life that work together to create these spaces.

The list about House, MD? That’s for me, not for you, and as such will get no further explanation. So there, blog reader. Ha.