Welcome Home, However You Define It

Hello there! I'm Amy from Crazy Random Happenstances. I really appreciate Selma letting me write over here in her part of the blog world!

And before you get bored from my intro, let me jump right in to... Love Actually.

I love movies... and the second I saw the opening sequence of Love Actually I was mesmerized. In case you haven't seen it, the movie opens with raw video footage of the arrival gate at Heathrow airport. Hugs and kisses and love are flying around freely as people are reunited with friends and family.

It always makes me a little weepy.

Besides setting up the movie perfectly, it also makes me think of my childhood a little bit. I grew up with a father who travelled a minimum of 30 weeks a year. And we actually travelled some of the time with him. By the time I was in kindergarten, the arrival gate at the airport already had two significant meanings to me. One: the fun was over. Two: I got to sleep in my own bed that night. And let me tell you, the latter always beat out the former.

I just love coming back to something I've been away from. I loved walking into home and just feeling welcome, like there was nowhere else I belonged at that moment.

The "welcome home" sensation goes so far beyond travel. It reaches into our soul. "Welcome home" gives a sense of belonging. A sense of sanity. A sense of familiarity. And that's always something I look forward to.

Source: dana-made-it.com via Debbie on Pinterest

I always feel a bit nervous walking back to my house, luggage in tow, getting ready to settle down again and unpack. Like something's going to change, like I'm not going to find my groove again. But I always have been able to.

I get this same feeling whenever I get a chance to see my 2 year old nephew. His face lights up whenever I tell him hello. He runs towards me, like I'm the best thing he's ever seen. Mimi! Mimi! he cries (since he can't quite say Amy). It's adorable. And it's familiar. I look forward to it every time I go home to visit my family.

The same goes for yearly football games, black eyed peas on New Years, and putting up the Christmas tree.  Making home feel welcoming through traditions is something everyone in the world can relate to.

I love how universal yet unique the "welcome home" sensation can be. Everyone's definition of "home" is different. But the sensation is the same.

In Love Actually the different "welcome home" realizations came in all different forms - one letting go of a love he's held on to too long, a few couples finding love, and an older couple just learning to deal with each other's failings - but the same sensation of l-o-v-e binds them all together. Which is the theme of the movie. "Love actually is all around." It's the love, in whatever form, that is at the base of "welcome home." And that's what I look forward to at any given moment of every day.

Source: shannoneileenblog.typepad.com via lila on Pinterest

What are some of your "welcome home" moments? What makes you feel safe and familiar?


I'd love to know.

Thanks for reading! And thanks to Selma for letting me write a little something over here. I really loved the opportunity!

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Thank you Amy for this wonderful guest post!
I have been busy adjusting to home again, and this post made me almost cry! In a good way of course!! And yes, Love Actually is all around. You have to just open your eyes and let it in...it is around, but sometimes we are too blind to see or feel it! 

Thanks again Amy!!! :D

♥  Selma