Be Present at Home
Once You Realize Where Home Is
This morning I lay in bed and did a body scan. It is part of my morning routine. A quiet check-in with whatever messages my body is holding before the day begins.
What came to me was simple. My body is my home.
And no matter where I go, I am always at home.
Why is this important? I am traveling and missing home. My routine. All the things. This message from my body has me reflecting on the places I have called home.
I have lived in many houses and called them home.
There was a house on the lake when my children were young. It’s where we lived when they started Montessori school and my youngest took her first steps. Where friends and family came and spread out comfortably because there was room for everyone. It was full of life and noise and love. It was home.
Then there was the home we moved into for our oldest daughter to attend a more diverse high school. A good decision. The right decision. But that home became dark for me. The pain I experienced in my marriage lived in those walls. My mother died while in that home. And when the marriage ended, I left that house because it was no longer home.
Starting over, I built a new home reflective of me. I made every decision. And before the walls went up, I walked through the frame of that house and prayed over every room. I placed the four Hebrew letters of God’s name on each door post and window frame. This home would be one of peace, love, and rejuvenation. For me and for my girls.
I did not fully realize then what that home would become. Each of my daughters returned at different points and stayed long enough that it became more home than I had anticipated. The rooms they decorated. The spaces they claimed. The joy I felt in the mornings when my granddaughter started coming in before school to say goodbye. That house became exactly what I prayed it would be.
So when I am away from it, I feel it.
I miss my bedroom decorated in pink, gold, and white. The comfort of my bed and everything I need right there on my nightstand. My shower with the right water pressure and the hot water I have come to count on. The Lovesac in my office where I curl up for morning prayer and journaling. The photos on my walls of powerful Black women who remind me every day what is possible. The back patio where I sit and read and listen to the birds and remember that God is always with me. The rose bushes in the garden below.
When I am gone, I miss home.
This week I am away helping my daughter settle into a new city. And there have been moments of homesickness I did not expect. I miss my routine. My greenway for morning walks. Praying for my granddaughter before school.
But this morning something shifted.
I made a decision not to miss what I had left behind but to be present with where I am. And in that stillness my body reminded me of something I needed to hear.
You are always home.
I was recently certified as a Somatic Trauma-Informed Coach. Somatics is the practice of listening to the body as a source of wisdom and data. The body is always gathering information. It holds what the mind sometimes cannot access. When you learn to listen, it speaks with quiet authority and brings a peace that is difficult to find any other way.
This certification has deepened my own practice of coming home to myself. And this morning’s body scan is a direct fruit of that work.
Because here is what I know to be true. As human beings we are spirits living in bodies. This body is our temple. It is our first and most permanent home on this side. As I become fully settled in this home, I know I will always be exactly where I belong.
What do you think? Are you settled in your internal home?
I want to invite you into something before you move on with your day.
Take a few minutes. Find a quiet place. Breathe in for four counts and out for six. And as you continue breathing, scan slowly from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. Notice what is there. Name it. And then gently release your grip on whatever you find.
Come back and share what that experience was like for you. I would love to sit with you in it.
Be present at home for it is a beautiful place to be.