What is the meaning of home?

According to the dictionary, the literal definition of ‘home’ is as follows: the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.

Does that definition truly capture the meaning of ‘home’, though? Is it really a satisfactory explanation for such a thing as important as a home? Is there something missing?

Home, to many people, is indeed a place where they are a member of a family or household. It is where your parents and siblings live; the place where you were raised. But still, that definition doesn’t exactly capture the essence of a home. After all, how many people live as a member of a family and still feel like they haven’t found their home just yet?

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that such a thing as important as home has nothing to do with family, or those who are as good as. But I am also not going to sit here and tell you that home is in the heart of the one that you find true love with. That’s not true either.

To begin with, this does have something to do with family. Family is such a huge part of an individual’s life, and although you may grow sick of them from time to time, leaving the family base and returning changes your opinion of things. Home and family are closely linked, and for good reason. That warm, fuzzy feeling in your chest you get when you haven’t seen your family in a while is exactly the feeling of homecoming. It’s the warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart when you’re just two minutes down the road from your house after coming back from holiday.

Yet home isn’t just that. Home is even more still. Home is where happiness is. It’s where you find yourself and your feet, and it’s where you realise that you are enough just by yourself. There is a feeling of home in places where one lives alone and it feels just as warm and fuzzy, just with an added element of empowerment to it.

Home is all of that and yet more. Home’s the smell that you catch at random walking down the street that reminds you of someone you’re missing. Home is the house that your grandma lived in. Home’s where the friends who know you the best are. Home’s the place where you’ve grown a genuine fondness for. Home is where your dog is. And home doesn’t have to be just one place. Home can be many places at once, and it can change and grow and shrink all in one lifetime.

Home, if anything, is impermanent. It changes, though it seems, often, to be our only constant. Regardless, home is one of the most beautiful things we have as human beings and we should never take it for granted.