Saturday, July 9, 2011

What Home Means to Teenagers

With today’s real estate collapse, people losing jobs, increase in families losing their homes, the stability of many is not only stressful, it is overwhelming.

During the summer months parents will make the move to be sure their kids, especially teens, are settled into a new school district when schools open again.  This can be a difficult time for many teens.  Whether it is leaving friends and familiar places, or moving away from family, it is a time to realize what is most important about having a home – not just a house or apartment.

  • Home is where the heart is, and that’s what differentiates it from all other places or states of mind a person may find themselves’ abiding. As you may well know, a home is beyond a physical structure, and has more to do with a place that provides the ultimate comfort and security for someone.Whether it be a plot near a lake, a village of birth, a cardboard box in an alley, or a memory of a moment and time; home is always the best place to be.
  • Permanence - Life transitions from one challenge to the next, while a home constitutes a sense of endurance against such challenges and is therefore considered permanent. Some may choose to relocate mind or body, but the reference of home will always accompany them wherever they go.
  • Acceptance - Nowhere else may one experience the true freedom of their personal spirit, without any apology, than in their own private space. A home intimately understands its residents and accepts, willfully, all strengths and deficiencies equally.
  • Safety - Whether achieved structurally or emotionally, a home portrays the ultimate fortress against foreign elements that would invade or corrupt the sanctity that lies within.
  • Security -A home is the purest embodiment of security. Within the confines or parameters of that which is considered ‘home’, an individual or family may thrive in the peace and harmony that they create in this atmosphere; and they are able to enjoy this freedom without fear or intimidation.
  • Nurture - Within each home there is a beauty that is unique in this life. The mere presence of a place that is considered ‘home’, becomes a self-generating energy for the inhabitants within its boundaries.
  • Prosperity -The true value of the home is often measured by goals and dreams achieved by those who respect ‘this’ as their home. The prosperity may only be realized by those who participate in this ideal; and that may be the most intrinsic beauty of all.
  • Communal - One of the most invigorating attributes of a home is that it is, quite frankly, meant to be shared. With this sharing, a visitor may experience the uniqueness of this foreign home while exchanging and sharing elements of that which they hold as their own home.
  • Strength - The best example of strength generation may clearly be found in the home. There, in safety and acceptance, a person is able to rejuvenate, heal, and energize when external forces have chipped away at that which is held sacred by the home.
  • Wellspring -The home has the distinctive function of quenching the thirst of those who seek  relief within the home. There and there alone teems a spring that will endure and satisfy as it replenishes and refreshes its residents.
  • Sanctuary - Only within a home may we come to know and experience a place or state of being that embraces and celebrates our most personal endeavors. Within such confines, we may explore the uninhibited realms of our faith, dreams and aspirations; and retain the confidence that is a provision of our home.
Home is a relative term.  What becomes most important is that each, and every one of us, has such a place—a place to call ‘home’.

Source:  Change of Address

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