Every One of Us Needs a Home – Daily Meditation 11.29.23

Today’s quotation:

Every one of us needs a home.  The world needs a home.  There are so many young people who are homeless.  They may have a building to live in, but they are homeless in their hearts.  That is why the most important practice of our time is to give each person a home. – Thich Nhat Hanh

Today’s Meditation:

In a way, I grew up without a home.  Of course, home was where my family was, but only my immediate family–we moved pretty constantly because my father was in the military, and we never had any place that we as a family could call home.  So we made our homes wherever we were and did our best to make them good homes.  This dynamic in my life has often made me wonder what life would have been like if I had had a home and whether I would continue moving constantly as an adult.

My wife and I are pretty good at making wherever we happen to be into a lovely home, a place that feels welcoming and comfortable.  We like to do our best to make the places we live as homey as possible so that we feel good there and that anyone visiting us feels welcome and at ease.  The world of today, though, doesn’t seem to value the concept of homes–people are moving around much more than ever before, even within towns and cities, and many young people have no idea what stability means.

I know what home means to me, even if I grew up not having a stable one–at least I had a home.  It’s difficult for me to imagine being a young person without a home.  It’s hard for me to think about a kid who doesn’t have a bed of his or her own, a kitchen that he or she can call their own, places that they’re used to being, and where they feel comfortable and safe.  These places don’t have to be mansions, but homes are significant for our children.  It must be very difficult indeed to grow up without that stability and then be expected as an adult to provide stability for others–or even to be consistent in their own lives.

We can’t all provide a home for homeless youth.  There are personal, social, cultural, and legal issues to consider when considering who can live in our own homes.  But as a society, we need to do better with how we provide for our young people.  As individuals, we need to be sure that the home we’re providing for our own families is definitely that–a home–and not just a roof over the heads of our family members.  People need homes, and it’s up to us as responsible adults to provide just that for the young people in our lives.

Questions to consider:

Why has the concept of “home” diminished so much in recent years?  Why do people place less importance on the idea?

How do you define “home”?  Where does your definition come from?

Why do we have so many homeless people in our world, even though there are so many empty houses around?

For further thought:

My home. . . It is my retreat and resting place from wars, I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest outside as I do another corner in my soul. – Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

If you missed our last Daily Meditation, it is here.