What is home?

On the way home from work, I picked my daughter up and she asked, "Daddy, where are we going?"

"Home." I said.

"Daddy, why do we go home every day?"

She is turning five this month, so perhaps her question could have been brushed off as simply one of the many that children her age ask, but it got me thinking. Or perhaps I should say, "musing."

For me, home is where we choose to live and spend our time. It is the place where we can learn and grow without the care of what others may do or say about us. It is where we "dance like no one is watching." Home is where we are safe from others' thoughts, judgments, criticisms, and words. Heaven willing, it is where we can be safe from others actions. Home is where we can be ourselves and where we have control over our surroundings. Home is where there are loved ones who reciprocate our love and who help us to be better. For me, it is in a very real way, heaven on earth.

That is not to say that it exists in a perfect state, but it feels perfect to us. I hurt for those that come from "broken homes," or that are "homeless" in any sense of the word. I tried my best to explain to my daughter all of the things above.

She replied, "I don't like to go home everyday, because it's boring."

Well, you can't win them all.