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The concept of "home" is a funny concept; when I'm at Uni and around Cambridge, if I say I'm 'heading home' I mean back to my college room, where I live for those 8-10 week bursts. But then towards the end of term, we all talk about when we're 'going home', meaning going back to the family home for the vacations. And when I was out in the Dominican Republic, even though only for 3 months, I 'went home' from working with the teams to the apartment I was renting while I was out there. In a discussion about this while I was there, I remember Claire (the missionary I was working with) saying that the question 'Where is home?' "only gets more difficult to answer". So I "came home", back to the family home, today and soon slotted back into the craziness of being with my sisters again! I'm sat in a full living room (though still with a gap left for my other sister who gets back from Uni at the end of this week!), surrounded by noise - the TV's on but it might as well not be because we're all talking and laughing too much to hear anything happening on it anyway! The living room is wonderfully decorated, with various strings of Christmas lights around the tops of the walls, and I've started catching up on the red doors (my ones!) of the painted Advent House calendar, in which I find white chocolate truffles my dad has made specially for me (I'm the big white chocolate fan of the house!). It's wonderful and yet still strange; strange to not have my friends around, especially not to have Thomas around - strange to have a choice of rooms to be in rather than just one - strange to have other people in most of those rooms(!) - strange to have responsibilities beyond myself (it's no longer acceptable to pile up all the crockery in the house after I use it until there's none left and no longer possible to just do what I feel like when I feel like it as things now have to be planned in advance so that joint plans can be made as well as individual ones). It's strange, for sure, but it's definitely home. And all the strangeness of family only makes me cherish it more. Family is such a big part of Advent and Christmas: it's an excuse to come together! To come together and embrace that strangeness, because the joy and wonderfulness of being together is right at the centre of it. I will always love my strange and wonderful family - and I know I will always be loved by them.
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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April 2020
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