The Quest For Our Home
And so it began, the quest for our home. It was sometime after April 04, 2004 when we sealed our lives to stand by each other’s side and search for a home. It was Spring time, to many the favorite season of the year; the winter was past and the rain was gone, the flowers appeared on the island and the time of birds singing had come! They danced in the sky here and there in search of the best materials to build their home called a nest, and even now as I look at them, I can see myself in the preparation of my own nest. Until now we haven’t found a place to call our own and it’s been 16 years since then.
So still in the quest for a home, we sent an email to an old friend who was living in the safety of Europe. Not expecting but believing that we could get an answer, we were surprised not only to receive an answer but also to know where our next destination would be. We got ready, set our minds and now with three children in our family, we flew across the ocean to a place where people spoke the same language as we did so we felt at home. The food was also similar to our native palette. Since we always looked for a place in the country, that’s where we found ourselves. There, being astonished with the burning forests and the lack of work, once again we decided it was time to continue our quest.
When we arrived on an island with the mountains and the hills blending in with the verdure of the pastures and the lakes and rivers giving abundant life to all around it, we realized we had found the place we were looking for. The people are warm and homey, sort of common and lovable mixed together, and they enjoy something called C-H-A-T! Yes, people here enjoy chat . . . chatting with each other, and they come to visit very often. I haven’t met a person here that hasn’t been willing to help me when needed. If I could say that there’s a place near heaven, this island, for sure, would be the one for morning rises with the melody of birds singing in gratitude for a new day, and each sunset is a blend of unique colours. The water is so clear for drinking and bathing, and when the sun appears, the golden pastures glow with white spots in between. The lambs run across the fields and farmers drive their mighty tractors everywhere. This place is for sure what we have been looking for but, our quest for a home isn’t quite complete yet.
Thus, we continue the search as there are cottages all over the country, and now we think this one for sure can be ours. It’s a very small cottage and has some land with it. We’ve learned it’s more than a hundred years old and that a family with many children lived there before. I enjoy thinking and imagining how things were one hundred years ago when a family would be crowded inside a small cottage and live a very simple but happy life. It seemed like then people knew the purpose of their lives, that home is the heart of all humanity and out of the heart are the issues of life; and the heart of the community, of the cities and of the nation is the household. Then the small country schools were filled with hundreds of children where nowadays they have only a couple dozen of children.
It’s hard to believe today how people build small palaces to live in with long corridors and many rooms just for the comfort of the family, but sometimes that comfort becomes a gap between themselves and rooms become hiding places. Silence fills the dining tables that are now empty for the amount of money that must be earned in order to cover the expenses of our modern palaces. If we look back at the small cottages, I believe we can still hear the echo of laughter in the simplicity of the country life. Wouldn’t it be better for all if we could go back in time and live like our great grandparents lived? The hard working days in the fields and the toughness of life made the ‘little seem much’ for isn’t work what accomplishes a man’s life? Living to serve others would be the theme of our days and so the small amount of money would serve to buy what was needed and not what was wanted. Children would be happier if they would spend their idle days beside their parents working in the fields, redeeming the time knowing that the days are short and the shops would sell things that are useful instead of things we desire. I believe that less is more because in the small cottage of a hundred years ago they had less rooms to clean, giving them more time to spend with each other. Also they probably had less clothes, so they didn’t have to spend time cleaning their huge wardrobe and separating seasonal clothes. Simplifying is a hard discipline but it can be done if we set our minds to it for where there’s a will, there’s a way so there’s a power in willingness.
We didn’t think about it then, but once you start travelling to different countries you must leave many belongings behind and only take with you what is essential; of course, our children are an essential for us. We learned to let go and detach from the things that could be replaced in time and to keep the things of family value. We now have a fourth child born here on this beautiful island so we believe that ourfamily is complete, and we also have concluded our quest for our home.
One thing for sure is that in every different country we have lived in took us a few weeks, sometimes months to adapt to it; new roads, different sightseeing, new people, but just as dandelions are made to be adaptable, we were also created to adapt to the different circumstances of life and be blessed in the process. Every place we lived, we made friends and we learned something new from each one of them. In our quest for a home our friends became messengers because many times through our conversations we could discern the next step we should take. Thus, in our quest for a home, we realized that what really matters are not the things you can hold in your hands but the things that are held in your heart likefriendships, time, words and actions.
In the end it’s more important to live a life of integrity and have a clear conscience full of love, joy, peace, kindness and hope for those virtues cannot be bought and are not sold; likewise, a house only becomes a home if those virtues abide there. We should climb to the opposite of despair holding onto hope knowing that justice has a twin sister and it’s love and mercy. Dealing with life’s disappointments, as in our case, many of our plans never came to fruition, but believed that something better was to come and is sure to come.
Planning becomes a waste of time when your many plans have become a set of failures and disappointments, but it’s true that we learn from our failures. I believe there’s someone higher than we are that knows the end from the beginning and so people are placed in our lives for a purpose, to fulfil a plan not made by our own minds but yet has been already prepared for us.
We have found our cottage and will now quest for the simple life; however, our quest for another home is still not complete as we are only sojourners and pilgrims here as the home we are looking for will have no more tears nor crying there. It isn’t the home of the brave, but it’s the home of the pure in heart where only those who believe will be there. That home may be called many names as it was called Zion before; some may call it heaven but I prefer to call it the new island for all things will be made new there. Jealousy, pride, arrogance and crime will not abide there. Only those virtues that I’ve mentioned before will be there, love, joy, peace, patience and kindness. The law of service will be the law in the new island and people will no longer hunger and thirst for a piece of paper called money for the attributes there won’t be bought with money, but there you will be distinguished by who you are and not what you have. Isn’t that the essence of life? Your character! What is your character if it isn’t the way you think and act, for your thoughts will become your words and your words will become your actions. So in answer to who you are, you are your character and that’s all that counts in this new home.
Realizing that all comes from above and it’s not of ourselves that we happened upon the people we met at the right time and at the right place, as for everything there’s a season and a time to every purpose under the firmament. Looking back on the things that we did, rather than what we left behind, gives us a sense of mission accomplished. Having gratitude in our hearts for each new day fills our minds with pure thoughts and that is what makes us ready for the entrance at the courts above . . . That Beautiful Isle of Somewhere.
Edited by the best English teacher And adopted grandma Ms. Dottie 💗
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