BEFORE WE OWNED A HOUSE, WE MADE A HOME.
REDEFINING HOME
This journey for us began with a detour.
Life was full. Life was good. But life was moving fast — pushing us in a direction away from home, away from sanctuary, away from peace.
Home had become a mere pit stop in between our many activities and responsibilities.
We had no real place to land at the end of our busy days. In fact, the busyness only followed us home with our screens in every room and in hand.
Home wasn’t a reprieve from the chaos, it was an extension of it.
When we needed a break, we went on vacation. When we needed a moment, we found a coffee shop with comfortable seating.
We became unsettled with this way of doing life, so we began to dream about something different — a detour from what had become our norm.
Somewhere along the way we had gotten caught up in trying to build the perfect life, and our sense of home mirrored this pursuit for perfect.
But we were never promised a perfect life, we were promised perfect peace.
The road to “perfect” is cluttered with trivial pursuits like possessions, platform, and position, and from what we’ve experienced, it leads to a place called burn out.
But the way of peace is different. Peace leads to wide open spaces — space to breathe, and to dream, and to fully pursue the very reason you’re alive without the need for fanfare or a stamp of approval from the perfect police.
It was tempting to believe that if our house was bigger, or better designed, or in a more prestigious neighborhood, it would be a more peaceful place. But while those external factors look good on paper, they actually do very little for our hearts.
We discovered it wasn’t a matter of settling down, or settling in, instead it was about taking charge in setting the atmosphere surrounding our lives.
At the time, we were living in a rental, so we couldn’t just paint the walls or renovate the kitchen. A much deeper work had to take place.
We stepped away from our desire for a perfect home, and started to build a peaceful home with this core belief — we don’t have to let the space we’re in define us, instead, we can define the space we’re in.
We believe that you don’t have to wait for your dream house to build your dream home. Home isn’t just a place. It’s an atmosphere. Something that can be carried with you and established in any place you live.
With this new mindset our home quickly became our favorite place. In the midst of all this discovery, our lives never shut down and our schedules didn’t disappear — life went on. What changed for us was home became like a refuge on a hill — giving us a heightened perspective and a newfound joy in the everyday details of our lives.
In late 2018, we came across a gem — a 1940s ranch house begging to be turned into a 21st century haven. We felt it was time to define a new space.
Through a miraculous set of events we were able to purchase our first home, giving it the name “Haven Hill.”
“You crown the year with goodness…You surround the hills with joy.”
As we’ve continued to journey down this detour it has become more familiar than the road we were traveling down before. I think it’s because this divergence was the road we were purposed to travel all along. You and I were made for peace. We were also made to dream and unashamedly explore those dreams.
For us, Haven Hill is a dream explored.
I’m documenting this journey because I want to savor it. I’m done rushing through seasons and always looking forward to the next thing while ignoring the very ground beneath my feet. There is an adventure to be had here — wherever here is for you. I’m realizing that adventure and significance and meaning aren’t always found someplace else.
There is no map for this journey. I don’t know how often I’ll share my writing or what will become of it all, I only know this — there is life to lived here and I’m going to savor it.
Don’t you want to live a life? Home represents the lives we’re living in the here and now.
We’ve been places, and we’ll go places, I know we will, but before we go rushing off to the next thing…
Let’s make home our favorite place.