1) “Home is the nicest word there is.” ~Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie
Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in the middle of illness and death, droughts and blizzards, poverty and uncertainty. She suffered all the hardships of frontier life. But the nicest word, for her, was not “comfort,” or “safety,” or “peace.” It was “home.” Maybe because home already is all of those other things, or maybe because home is something even more important.
2) “There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” ~Jane Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice
2014 Seattle is not much like Jane Austen’s world of Victorian mansions, high manners, and elaborate courtships. But the two do have similarities. The comforts of home mattered to Austen, and they matter to us. A place to relax. A place without pressure. A place to slip your shoes off, lie on the couch, and stay in for the night.
3) “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” ~Maya Angelou, author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Homes offers security. Not just physical security, but a safe place for all our emotions and fears and insecurities. We can be ourselves in a home, real and honest about who we really are. A home is more than a castle—it is a refuge, where no one barges in and tries to change you.
4) “He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, author of Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived at the same time as Jane Austen, but he led a very different life. He traveled around Europe, studied law, fought in battle, and worked as a scientist. He advised dukes, befriended historians, and oversaw miners. And after all he saw and did, Goethe concluded that the happiest people were those in a peaceful home. Rich or poor, powerful or oppressed—for all of them, what mattered most was a peaceful home. A home is a foundation. And a peaceful foundation is essential.
5) “There’s no place like home.” ~L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Ruby-slippered Dorothy says it best. No place is quite like home. Comfortable, secure, peaceful—and more than that, too. A home makes us feel whole. The ache for it is built into all of us, and when we satisfy that ache—well, it’s a good feeling. A very good feeling.
