“The ache for home lives in all of us.”
— Maya Angelou
People use the word home in ways that have nothing to do with an address.
Someone returns to the town where they grew up and understands, perhaps for the first time, what Thomas Wolfe meant by You Can’t Go Home Again. Another speaks of visiting grandchildren three states away and says, “When I’m with them, I feel at home.” A widow sorts through boxes in the attic, picks up an old anniversary card in her husband’s handwriting, and for a moment finds herself home again.
We seem to know what we mean, even though we’re talking about very different places.
For thousands of years, spiritual traditions have noticed the same thing.
Traditions Speak
✝️ Christianity
Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms… I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2). Christians have long found comfort in the promise that our deepest home is already known to God.
✡️ Judaism
“If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.” (Psalm 137:5). Even in exile, Israel carried home in memory, prayer, and hope until the day of return.
☪️ Islam
“Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.” (Qur’an 2:156). Every journey begins and ends in God, making every faithful life a homeward pilgrimage.
🕉️ Hinduism
“As a man casts off worn-out garments and puts on others that are new, so the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters into others that are new.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:22). Beyond every temporary dwelling is the eternal home of the soul.
☸️ Buddhism
“I go to the Buddha for refuge. I go to the Dharma for refuge. I go to the Sangha for refuge.” For Buddhists, refuge is less a destination than a way of living with wisdom, compassion, and awakening.
☯️ Taoism
“Returning is the motion of the Tao.” (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 40). Lao Tzu saw return not as retreat but as the natural rhythm of life itself.
☬ Sikhism
“The Lord Himself is my home and resting place.” (Guru Granth Sahib). In remembering God, the wandering heart discovers the peace for which it has always longed.
🏛️ Stoicism
Marcus Aurelius wrote, “Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.” (Meditations, 4.3). The Stoics looked for a home that no change of fortune could take away.
🌿 Indigenous Wisdom
Many Indigenous peoples speak of belonging to the land rather than owning it. Home is found in relationship—with the earth, with ancestors, with community, and with generations yet to come. It is something we receive as much as something we inhabit.
Each tradition approaches home from a different direction. Yet together they remind us that the deepest longing of the human heart has never been satisfied by walls and roofs alone.
Last Sunday, we followed Odysseus on his long journey back to Ithaca.
Maya Angelou gives a name to what kept drawing him there—and to what still draws the rest of us.
The ache for home lives in all of us.
Question for Reflection
Has your idea of home changed as you’ve grown older? If so, how?
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Related spiritual themes: belonging, community, home, impermanence, second half of life
LS Pomeroy July 29, 2026
I love words and their many meanings. As a child I was drawn to quotes like “Home is where the heart is” (ancient proverb) and “There’s no place like home” (the Wizard of Oz original movie).
My childhood home was rarely loving, I went to books and movies to discover how others loved. I felt odd and even abnormal because I wanted love to be how homes are created. And when I was blessed with a child I made loving a tangible part of her life.
After my first marriage ended my college-aged daughter said she wanted me to love myself as much as I love her. So I decided to create a loving home within myself. 5 years after that quest began I met someone who believed in loving and caring for others. We shared 17 1/2 years of being lovingly at home with each other then cancer took him. I’m beyond grateful we both went all-in to co-creating a love home for and with each other.
The Editors July 29, 2026
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful and deeply personal part of your journey.
Your willingness to speak so openly about your childhood, your search for love, and the home you eventually found within yourself and with your husband will encourage many people reading these comments. There are others here who will recognize parts of their own story in yours and find hope because you chose to share it.
Thank you for helping make this such a caring community.
ButterflyWoman July 31, 2026
Home. That word didn’t make sense to me as a kid. We moved a lot when I was young. And I mean A LOT. 26 moves for me by the time I was 8 years old. 6 more were added by the time I was 23 and my father died. Home then was a place to live for awhile until the next move. I didn’t feel “rooted” anywhere except the state of Colorado where we lived. But an entire state doesn’t feel that homey.
I was almost 30 before I realized where my home was. I discovered it on a trip to Upper Michigan and the Keweenaw Peninsula with my mom in the summer of 1990.
Mom was born and raised on the Keweenaw Bay Indian Reservation in Baraga, MI and we were going up there for the Annual Powwow. I had never been to a powwow before. I knew we were Native American but I was raised in Denver and knew nothing about my own tribe.
It was on this vacation that I not only discovered my tribal home but also the home of my heart in the U.P. of Michigan. I knew by the time I returned to my home base that the U.P. would be my actual home in the future, I just didn’t know when that would happen. Every trip up there in the following years solidified my belief and I grew more excited about that eventual move.
Then Covid hit. I had been in healthcare for my entire adult life. I had worked in the OR, same day surgery, L&D, then into outpatient clinic life.I saw and heard things during that first year of Covid that made me scared and I saw what was happening to those staff that worked the inpatient side. It was brutal and like a living nightmare and I wanted out.
I made my plans to retire. I got my knee replacement and did the PT. Once I was cleared, I went back to work, put in for retirement and left 5/31/2021. In September, I made the move to the U.P. and home.
I live here as an Elder now. I’ve been here for almost 5 years. I live in rez housing and could not be happier. My home is the last place I will live. I am surrounded by trees, water, my tribe and I am Home. My heart is a part of this place. And this place is a part of me.
Home is a place where I feel safe. The land here feeds my soul. I go to the water of Lake Superior and I am at peace. I fit in here. I cannot imagine living anywhere else. I am finally home.
The Editors July 31, 2026
Thank you for sharing this. Twenty-six moves by the age of eight explains why “home” meant something very different to you than it does for some others. Your journey reminds us that home is not always the place where we begin. Sometimes it is the place where we finally discover we belong. Your closing words are beautiful: “My heart is a part of this place. And this place is a part of me.” Thank you for letting us share in that discovery.