Ahhh...Sweet Home...How I long for thee....

Hello to all you folks out there waiting for this, the next post in the continuing series of the life of which I know so much. I just made the comment to the person that suggested this post that "My life has been so very blest". I could begin now listing the ways I've been blest and it would take all night (..It's 9:30pm). So, I'll begin things by saying that one of the ways I've been blest in this life is by having grown up in the home that I did. We didn't have a perfect life and it was with hard work that we lived, but I grew up knowing that I was loved and learned how to love. I suppose that as one goes through life encountering the very difficult trauma that life dishes out to us that we tend to lose sight of what we learned on the way. I've been giving thought to the homes I've had over the years and I've also given thought to each specific place that I've called home. The first time I recall 'returning home' was in December 1968. I'd been in San Diego, which was my first ever station while in the Navy. It was the first time I'd been away from home as an adult and for that extended amount of time. It's amazing how long 5 little months can be, huh? I can still recall with amazing detail each part of the trip. Boarding the plane in San Diego, changing planes in L.A., a 6 hour lay over in Dallas, from there to Atlanta ( I know, we flew over Birmingham to Atlanta) then back to Birmingham. It was about 9 or 10 pm when I arrived there. I called "home" to see if they (my family) could come to pick me up. I'd expected my Dad but when they arrived it was the whole family. Ahh....What a sweet homecoming. I had 2 whole weeks there and I savored the time greatly. San Diego wasn't a home I relished because it was filled with 16 hour days of drill, classes, drill, marching, shipboard drills, inspections that were quite literally impossible to pass and more drills. Oh yeah...We took just a small amount of time to eat and sleep. My next 'home' was in Memphis, TN. Where I stayed for 6 or 7 months in electronics school to learn as much as possible about the electronic equipment in all of the aircraft that the Navy operated. It was there that I met and married my first wife. Thus far I've covered three "homes". By this time I was becoming acclimated to changing homes very frequently. Next I was in Brunswick, Ga. where my oldest daughter was born. I was there for a short while, then sent to an Attack squadron for duty, which is where I stayed the rest of my time in the Navy. While in that squadron I called three places home. One was at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Florida. The second was the USS Coral Sea that we caught out of San Fransico and the third was the USS America out of Norfolk, Va. While on the Coral Sea we went to the western pacific theatre where we spent time at yankee station along with the USS Midway and the USS Roosevelt. I never thought that I'd like calling the Coral Sea 'home' but the time came that I did. A few times I was sent TAD (temperarily assigned duty) to Danang Air force base. After that the Coral Sea was a good place to call home. I was happy to get back everytime. When we got back to Cecil Field and stayed a little while our orders came for a Mediterranean cruise on the USS America. What a welcome relief. Even though that deployment lasted a lot longer it was considerably easier. It was on that cruise that I missed so much of my daughter growing up. She turned from a baby into a toddler. Having had so many homes over the years I've realized just how wonderful home can and should be. It should be a place of safety, a place to be nurtured, a place where one can truly relax and a place where one can trust. Home for us all, will be what we and those there with us make it. We can choose to nurture each other and it will be a nurturing place. We can choose to protect each other and it will be a place of safety. We can choose to be trustworthy and it will be a place where we and those with us can trust and relax. We can make it a peaceful place by choosing to be peaceful. We can make it an angry place by being angry. In other words, it's going to be exactly what we and those in the home with us choose for it to be. I've had occasion over the years to live in a home that was very loving, and I've also had occasion to live in very contentious homes. "Home". What pictures it brings to mind when we hear the word. What memories spring to mind when we read the word. How often is the word used so casually. All of this begs an answer to questions that we alone can answer. Is God pleased with my contributations to my home? Is my home a place of quality? What am I contributing to my home? These questions need to be answered with some frequency in order for us to hold ourselves accountable in this area. Home...Ahhh...does the very sound of it make your heart glad or fill you with a sence of foreboding. Does the word bring to your face a smile or a frown. The answer, you will find, lies within your own heart and mind. ....And so it goes........