My home is where my heart is, but my heart yearns for another home.
Like many of my mom friends, we are pioneers in our city, having left our family behind in the place we once called home. I now navigate on my own as a mom in the way my mom once did. We have made friends, joined the community, and found our place here. We eat, sleep, play, work, and daydream out of the cozy space we now call home. We relish in the luxuries our house offers, allowing us to stay put for days on end sometimes. My home is my resting place, but these walls can be confining.
I crave another resting place, another hub. I simply ache for the village.
It does take a village, and I think we all desperately long for that from time to time. Things are different than they used to be. We don’t typically live in close proximity to friends and family like people did decades ago. Life as mom can be lonely in our separate dwellings spaced so far apart. We aren’t technically alone with our little ones surrounding us all day long, but we often feel so alone. Sometimes we just need another couch to comfortably fall into, while we share our mom-life qualms with one another. And, let’s face it, we need help! We hire babysitters, people to clean our houses, and are forever in search of easy meal solutions.
In a tight community, even as busy as we all are, we can use our strengths to help lighten the load for each other, all while getting to fill our social buckets.
We have friends, but I really want to find family in my friends. I want to bake bread or paint pictures with them while our little ones play outside. I want to sit by the bonfire together and play board games after our kids have gone to sleep. I want to unburden them by cooking bountiful meals for them to enjoy without lifting a finger. I want to assume our tables are open to share holidays together when we aren’t spending them with our families. I want our door to be open to those who need company, and I also want to be able to bring my crew through open doors to play and relax. I want us to have cherished memories that were created within the parameters of walls besides our own.
