Home is where the Heart is

It happened on the side of the road one day. 

A road that we were both so familiar with. It led from one town to the other and gave me just enough time to think about all I had to think about, and forget all that I had to think about when I got there. 

My best friend and I would take turns driving each other to school in the morning, leaving just a bit early to get some world famous Tim Horton’s coffee, but still arriving fashionably late to our first class of the day. And just about all the rest of them. I remember these days like a vivid photograph. No matter the day, no matter the weather, no matter if we were sick, sad, pissed, or exhausted. We shared this moment with each other. This ritual, every single day of our senior year in high school. It felt like home to me. I was familiar with it. And as we grow up and develop into well structured human beings, we all seek to have something comfortable to fall back on, something that we know is always going to stay the same, even if we change. My mother always told me that home doesn't necessarily have to be where you grew up, which house you lived in the longest, or where all your friends were closest to you. Home is where your 'stuff' is. It's where your family is. You can be anywhere in the world, but if you have your prized possessions and your family beside you. You are home. I think this is all something we take for granted. We've been told before as children, don’t take for granted the clothes on your back, or the roof over your head, because some children don’t get to experience as much as you do. And truth is, they’re all right. My parents took me on a drive down the streets of Vancouver when I was about 13 years old. Young, wild and free, and using every available excuse to get what I wanted in my sweet little princess attitude. What I saw was beyond revealing. I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew it wasn’t nice and I knew it wasn’t good. I never knew what shooting up meant or snorting coke, or blow was. I never knew what prostitution or a hooker was. And I certainly never thought it was possible to see children, my age, starving and laying on the street with just a shredded blanket on, to cover them up on the rainiest, most bone-chilling day. It was one of the realest experiences I had, in exposing how lucky I really was. 

There is so much going on in our world that we unfortunately play shy too, because thinking about how unfortunate peoples circumstances are, would most definitely deteriorate our own. Of course we instantly feel pain and sorrow when the worldwide starving children donation commercials come on our televisions, of course we want to adopt a puppy from the shelter when we pass by a sad looking mutt on the street. We all want to better others lives because internally it makes ours seem better. We feel more privileged for things that we have, that others don’t. This is compassion. This is something a lot of people know, but consistently neglect to show. The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t need to be delivered with spending your savings on charities, although that is a thoughtful and blessed initiation. Compassion comes with smiling at strangers, singing songs with elder people, playing with your little cousin, nephew, or niece at the park. We ripple and radiate love, when we do small things in abundance. It’s a win, win situation. You will seek peace in your heart that is displayed throughout the whole world. The fact that I have the opportunity to go home, and love my family with all that I have, is a blessing in its own. Have you ever seen the look on your mothers face when you go up and hug her and tell her how beautiful she looks (the first initial response might be, ‘okay what did you do? or what do you want’) but in reality, every single mothers/fathers day card, note, or special present I made for my parents, is kept in their dresser drawers as keepsakes for the appreciation of all their hard work as parents.

It is a beautiful feeling to love and be loved in return. Make small adjustments on your compassion meter. Do the right thing when no one is watching for this will turn to bless you when all the people are joined in peace and harmony, doing the same, at the end of the day.

Love & Tons of Smiles. xo