My seven-year-old daughter, speaking to me: People call a house a home, but people sell their houses.* So a house isn't a home.
Me: That's true, Sasha.
Me: I think home is where the family is.
Sasha: I think the whole earth is our home.
Said she. Spreading her arms wide.
* At Christmas my Artist Sister-in-law sold her house and moved to Portland, and this spring my parents-in-law put their Camp Sherman place on the market. Also Sasha's best friend recently moved to Portland, and one of her classmates moved to North Carolina**. Sasha's been thinking on that for awhile. She keeps asking me why people sell their houses, unsatisfied with the financial answer.
** I had thought that by enabling my kids to spend their childhood in one town, they wouldn't feel loss in the way that I did. (I attended three different elementary schools and two junior highs.) In fact I think they feel it more keenly. The person who moves has a whole new life; the one who stays behind has a hole in her life.***
*** I'm not saying we ought to move.**** There are other advantages to staying in one place. And Central Oregon, as you know! is in my heart.
**** This post inspired by the Penguin family's travels.
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