Home –

It is a common question, one that surfaces in the initial conversation between new acquaintances. Among missionaries, I can assure you that, “where are you from?” Ranks as the top question asked upon introduction. I also know, from experience, that this question doesn’t always produce a simple or straight-forward response. For most, ‘where are you from?’ translates to ‘where is your home?’, which opens a differing perspective altogether. 

Home is where the heart is. Home is where your journey began. Home is where you hang your hat.

Northern California is the ‘short’ answer when I get the question but, even though I have lived there for thirty years or so, it still feels like a home away from home. Idaho will always feel like home, ‘We’ were born in Pocatello, went to school there, married there, had our children there (mostly), and then moved to Foresthill, California when our children were young – they call California ‘home’.

Roots in the Green family are somewhat nomadic, birthplaces of my Green forefathers: Montpelier Idaho, Vernal Utah, Sacramento California, Cherry Valley New York, Otsego New York…it keeps going, to Rhode Island in 1635. We have spread roots from England and across America. My 2nd and 3rd Great-Grandfathers were born in New York, lived in Kirtland Ohio, Morley’s Settlement Illinois, and then in Montrose Iowa before heading west in 1846 with the beleaguered Latter-Day-Saints. So, some of those ‘Green’ roots call out to me, as a temporary resident of Nauvoo Illinois.

Ultimately, home is a metaphorical thing, meaning different things to different people at different times. From our first day on Earth, to our last, you know that there are those who are waiting for us to return…to our Heavenly Home.

It doesn’t make the answer any easier but, my current stance is, “I am home…if I’m not longing to be somewhere else!“