Coming home after a long time away is like breathing in fresh oxygen. The familiar after absence is just that much more comforting. If you are careful traveler, and have cleaned appropriately before you left, when you come home everything looks, smells, and feels refreshingly mundane.

Don’t get me wrong. We should absolutely get out of our comfort zones. We should travel the world and put ourselves in uncomfortable situations. Experiences are meant to be lived, not looked at on a television screen. Getting out there, seeing the world, talking to new people; all wonderful things.

But home is just so familiar and feels like a warm blanket on a frosty night. It’s a warm hug, the smell of fresh baked cookies, and the family pet curled up on your lap. It’s a thousand memories of family and friends -of incredible experiences- that you had right there in your house.

My kids have grown up here. Learned to ride their bikes here. We go for walks, explore the trails, and ride to town from here; have family dinners, movie nights, and game nights here. We have had a dozen winters, springs, and summers in this house together.

This is the home that my wife and I built. Our home is filled with life, not just trinkets, toys, books, and pictures. It’s filled with the aura of the lives we have lived here, the family and friends who have visited here, and all the joy we have had here.

No, our house is not perfect. Our house has lots of things that need to be fixed, updated, or changed. It’s showing the wear and tear of being lived in. This is the place I want to be, work, and live. Sometimes the monotony of all that work just wears on you, the funny glitches start to annoy you, and don’t even get me started on cutting the lawn.

All that annoyance just fades after a long trip. The familiar problems and the familiar joys just overwhelm any of the negativity. You are home.

Just where you are meant to be.