The House that Built Me

The House that Built Me

I heard this song on the radio this morning on my way into work and I was moved to write about it. It is by Miranda Lambert and is called "The House that Built Me". It is about a woman going back to the home she grew up in after many years. The house had been sold, but the memories remain.

This struck me as this past weekend when I went back to the home I grew up in I took notice of things I had forgotten.

The places where we buried the cats and dogs we had growing up, the pine tree that has grown from a seedling to a 50 foot tree, the garden area with the woods my brother and I use to play in, the wire fence the farm next to us had to keep the cows out of the yard, the smell of the basement after a hard rain, the orange striped carpet in the basement, the sump pump going off every 20 minutes, the smell of mothballs in the sewing room, and a poster of Farrah Fawcett in my brothers old bedroom. Each memory came back of who I was then and who I have become today because of it all.

I found myself liking the smell of the mothballs - not literally, but because it reminded me of how hard my mother tried to get me to love to sew and how now I can sew because of it.

I found myself looking at the tall pine tree and remembering how many times I ran over it with the lawn mower, but still it survived - it grew - it become a tree.

I found myself thinking about how animals have always been so important to me and my family and how I can't imagine having a home without furry cats or fuzzy dogs around as they warm my heart and touch my soul.

I found myself feeling like I had never left. There is a comfort to going home.

I found myself wondering where will I go when my parents have gone, the house has sold, and I have nothing to bring me back there - to my hometown and the house that built me.

They say you can never go home again, but I like to think that home is with me always. The house that built me is the home I am today. It has shaped my beliefs, values, ethics, and person I am today and I know I am blessed to have had the house I had that built me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQYNM6SjD_o