Today I’m feeling rather homesick.
While it might be easy to magnify that feeling – allowing it to bring down one’s spirit and ultimately one’s day – I’m accepting that this is just how I’m feeling today, rather than becoming overwhelmed by it.
It’s important to understand that being “homesick” is a natural feeling that everyone experiences at one point or another.
It’s not limited to those of a certain age, wealth or geographic location. It has no biases or predictability – it’s just one of those emotions that pops up during holidays and birthdays, or is triggered by a familiar smell or sight which brings you back to another place and time.
I’ll admit that a quote by Nikki Schiefelbein does comfort me some this morning. It reads:
“It’s hard when you miss people. But you know if you miss them, that means you’re lucky. It means you had someone special in your life, someone worth missing.”
How very true.
My homesickness comes more for the people I’ve encountered during my lifetime and not necessarily the places. I’ve met some wonderful people during the course of my life – some I’m fortunate enough to still be in contact with, others who’ve sadly passed away. But they’ve left me with some wonderful memories that surround my heart on days like this – affording me dozens of reasons to smile, and even laugh to myself at times.
I wonder how many of us realize just how “lucky” we are for the people we miss and the people who are still a part of our daily lives?
Sometimes it can be difficult to see when we’re wrapped up in our own world, our own struggles and our own circumstances. We forget about “people” – near or far – and how empty our lives would seem without their presence.
We all reach an age where we begin to understand and relate to what true “loss” really feels like. That empty space in our hearts that eventually heals some, but can never fully be filled again. It’s when you’re able to relate to that feeling that you begin to understand just how fragile life truly is – how vitally important it is to cherish and appreciate the people who fill the pages of your personal scrapbook.
Today I’m feeling rather homesick. But I’ve had and still have some special people in my life that are helping me get through.
