I’m eagerly awaiting the day when I can thank them for their care, bless them on their professional journeys, go home and stay in my own familiar surroundings. You see, I’m longing for a life that consists of more than just disease treatment! Days of visiting with family and friends, laughing together, enjoying the out-of-doors, and feeling well. I guess I’m homesick, not for a place so much as for a feeling of wellness and freedom!
The month before my treatments began, home was a hospitality center. We enjoyed visits from two dozen or more family members and dear friends. What a joy!
Home has also been a place of comfort and safety. Even when Bruce had to be whisked off to the hospital unexpectedly twice, leaving me alone at home, employed companions helped me feel safe and comfortable.
Home provides me with the privacy I need to feel rotten, let my body make the messes it must make, shed all the tears I need to shed, and pray myself back into harmony again. And all this privacy is filled with hundreds of greeting cards and silent words of encouragement from more friends than I knew I had!
At home I know where to find my shoes, how to turn on (and off) the TV, and which pile of papers on my desk is hiding the one I need. Home is familiar. I know where things are and I am surrounded by pictures and items that remind me of happy, healthy times past.
Yes, friends, I am homesick -- for a place and for a state of well-being. I know where the place is. Will the state of well-being be there when I get there again?
