Home Plate!

by Suzanne Reisler Litwin

We all have adorable childhood stories to share. One story in particular is about my husband. His mother told me this story many years ago when we were still dating.

The adorable event happened when he was about 6 or 7 years old. He was playing on a local community baseball team. It was probably t-ball baseball.

As the story goes, he was up at bat and struck the ball so hard that it went sailing way out into the outfield. Above all the little heads on the opposing team. It was definitely a home run.  Just then the parents and coaches started to scream at him to “RUN HOME! RUN HOME!”

He ran his little body to first base and stood there. The parents and coaches kept on screaming at him to “RUN HOME! RUN HOME!”  So, he started to cry and ran off the field in the direction of his home. He “actually” ran down the street to his home.

His parents watched this completely perplexed and wondered why their son would actually run all the way to his home.  I suppose having all the adults and coaches collectively screaming at him to run home, literally meant to him to “run home”. Which he unfortunately did in tears.

This story is so sweet and everlasting. It’s a keepsake.

I frequently think about it and giggle inside when appreciating the simplicity of children’s minds.  I also think about home as the base or home plate. The place you want to go to feel comfort.

Sometimes when I travel I wonder what feels the best. The instance when you actually leave your home to go on vacation or the moment when you arrive at home from a trip?  Which feels better, I wonder?

I consider myself lucky because I love my home. It is the place I feel most safe and comfortable. I don’t mind leaving it, but I do adore coming back to it. My home is about my pillows and bed, its smell, my kitchen and bathroom. All the familiar things, which are my things.  When I am away for a long time, I dream about my pillows.  Home is where the family meets and lives.  Home is home plate to me.

Going on vacation is amazing. Planning it and going on a special trip is a lot of fun. Seeing new things and meeting interesting people is incredible. Discovering the world and experiencing change helps us grow as individuals.

When the time comes to return home, I’m just as happy as when I left. Sometimes, I can’t wait to get home. That first moment when you open the door and smell the inside of your home. It is usually the same moment when your home appears different, perhaps smaller or bigger and still.  I never find it depressing to be home. I actually find it exhilarating and so relaxing to finally be there.

I’m quite certain not everyone feels this way about being home especially after being on a great vacation. Sometimes, my vacation is simply being home alone without much to do.

Here are a collection of some wonder quotes having to do with the love of a home.
Enjoy!

1. There’s no place like home.
– Wizard of Oz, movie 1939

2. A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.
-Christian Morganstern

3. He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

4. There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.
-Jane Austen

5. Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.
-Sarah Ban Breathnach

6. I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.
-Maya Angelou

7. A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
-George A. Moore

8. Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

9. The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.
-Confucious

10. Home is where the heart is.
-Pliny the Elder