The Comforts of Home

Erin and me outside the Wisconsin cabin

After a week in the woods, I felt more at home in a friend’s cabin in northwest Wisconsin than I do at my shared apartment in Minneapolis, where I’ve lived for more than a year. I don’t view “home” as a physical concept. I feel at home anywhere I have an emotional or spiritual connection or where I’m with people I care about.

I felt at home in the cabin because of the peacefulness of the woods and the generosity of the couple who offered it to me. I felt even more at home there the last two days of my eleven-day stay because my daughter Erin drove up to walk the nature trail with me and spend time together.

I feel at home wherever I am if my daughter is with me. Or my mom. Or my closest friends. I feel at home at Ecopolitan, my home away from home where I often work on my laptop, because of the healthy food and the relationships I’ve built with employees and customers.

I feel at home in Encinitas, California, not only because of its natural beauty and ocean views, but because Paramahansa Yogananda‘s presence permeates the entire town. Likewise, when I first read Yogananda’s book, Autobiography of a Yogi, I felt like I had at long last come home.

All my life I had felt at home in Ortonville, Minnesota, where my dad grew up and where my family always went for vacations and holidays. But Ortonville no longer feels like home; the houses, the storefronts, the special childhood places I remember are still there, but it feels like a ghost town now because virtually all the people I knew there are gone.

My lifelong buddy Kerri and I enjoy lunch together at my house

My old neighborhood in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where I grew up and lived until we moved away after seventh grade, no longer feels like home. I recently walked the streets there with Kerri, my childhood neighbor and lifelong friend, and it too seemed like a ghost town.

The people now living in Ortonville and White Bear Lake call those places home like I once did. To them, these places are bursting with life, but to me they now exist only in the swirling mists of memory. It is not buildings and landmarks that make a place feel like home, but the people who live there, or lived there.

Home is not a place where I eat and sleep and store my possessions. Home is a state of mind. Home is where I feel loved.

ABOUT PHIL BOLSTA

Phil is the author of Through God’s Eyes: Finding Peace and Purpose in a Troubled World, a comprehensive guide to living a spiritual life. Who will benefit from reading it?

Anyone who is on a spiritual path, or wants to start one
Anyone who loves life, or wants to learn how to
Anyone who is happy, or wants to be happier

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Phil is also the author of Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, a collection of 45 inspiring, life-changing stories from prominent people he interviewed, including Joan Borysenko, Deepak Chopra, geneticist Dr. Francis Collins, acclaimed sportswriter Frank Deford, Dr. Larry Dossey, Wayne Dyer, Dan Millman, Caroline Myss, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, Dr. Bernie Siegel, James Van Praagh, singer Billy Vera, Doreen Virtue, Neale Donald Walsch, and bassist Victor Wooten.

Here is a three-minute video that introduces you to Phil and his book. Click here to order Sixty Seconds. Click here to ask Phil to add you to his e-mail list for updates on his blog and books.

Reading this book is like spending a few minutes face to face with each of the contributors and listening to their personal stories. Click here to read unsolicited testimonials from readers. Learn more by visiting the official Sixty Seconds website.

Sixty Seconds was one of three finalists in the General Interest/How-To category at the 12th annual Visionary Awards presented by COVR (Coalition of Visionary Resources) in Denver on June 27, 2009.

Tags: comfort, home