Sailing Homeward

Home, it has been said, is where the heart is. It is a place you love, a place for family to gather, a place you have painted or remodeled or added your own personal touches to, a place close to your favorite restaurant, favorite stores and friends. A house, on the other hand, is simply walls, bedrooms and bathrooms.

It is not homes many of us have lost to due financial issues, it is houses. It can be difficult for anyone who has an emotional investment in their living space to make the change, to allow “homes” to become “houses”.

Foreclosures, short sales, being upside-down on your mortgage; however you call it, it can seem like the end of the world. While it is not, there is psychological trauma associated with the event. You aren't likely to starve or sleep on the streets as an immediate result of a foreclosure, and a family’s belongings are no longer tossed to the curb when it happens.

Owning a home is a fundamental part of a sense of belonging in this country. In 1890, the American psychologist William James wrote that “a man's self is the sum total of all that he can call his...his body and his psychic powers...his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works..." Home ownership, along with our family, belongings and jobs, are an extension of self. Losing those things, even temporarily, effect our self value.

The important thing to remember is this too shall pass. Another house will become a home, a place we fell comfortable in and personalize to make it our own. The pain, sense of loss and heartache will subside, and one day it will be hard to remember ever feeling so bad. Self values right themselves, the journey begins anew and you never know where you might be swept off to.

Sailing homeward, it's time to go home,
Over the ocean of life we must roam.
And when you get there, say hello for me,
For I've a long, long way to go.