We have all heard the adage, “Home is where the heart is,” but have you ever explored what coming home means to you?

I believe this adage is true, but in a very simplified form. We do find our sense of home through the heart. Home, I believe, is a feeling of deep connection. It is, in essence, what we are all seeking when we feel lost or alone.

The mysteries teach us that we are birthed into individuality to experience the self. A self that came from and will eventually return to a greater whole. At our very essence, we are all seeking this reconnection to unity, but “home” can feel different to each of us.

Let me give you and example:

I recently traveled with my husband to Ireland. It was a belated 50th birthday trip for me, so I chose most of our destinations. If you know me, you won’t be surprised to hear I filled our agenda with as many ancient sites as I could.

During the night of our first stay in Ireland, I woke to a vision of a figure standing over the bed on my husband’s side. Later in the day, I told my husband of the vision, which seemed more than a mere coincidence based upon the site we had chosen to visit later that day.

“I’m not sure it was for me,” he told me, “I don’t feel like I’ve had a past life here. I don’t feel a connection to this place.”

I’ve added a little more dialogue to his words to better illustrate this idea of home. My husband has learned, while observing me over the years, one of the most profound ways I find “home” is through visiting ancient sites. Here, I often find the energy of home. I can feel the energy of connection so deeply, sometimes, it moves me to tears. My heart pulls towards reunion. My cells come alive with memories the stretch beyond the individual self. I feel truly, and utterly, “at home.”

But this is not necessarily true for my husband.

Home to him is a more concrete and here-and-now experience. He is “at home” with his present day family. He is “at home” when he practices his craft of medicine.

I too find home in my craft of writing. Words form a labyrinth of connection that weaves through my cells when they arise from a place deeper than the self. When that soft voice bubbles through the layers of resistance, I feel the energy of home. I feel connection.

This feeling of home also comes to me when I am still in nature, and the individual self dissolves into the harmony of being a part of Earth.

So, I am wondering, what does home feel like to you? Where, or how, do you find your deepest sense of belonging and connection?

Even if you don’t want to share your feelings of home with me, maybe you will share it with yourself? I think it’s worth exploring. I think the feeling of disconnection from “home” is, at its most fundamental level, what causes our pain and suffering.