Homesickness is real!
When we moved to Pennsylvania, I was twenty-nine years old and had a two-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. Family is essential to me (chosen and given) and well, I was moving three hundred miles away with my husband who had a new opportunity. It was hard! Really hard. But we did it.
Especially in the beginning, it felt like I moved to an emotional desert. The area where I lived seemed to have no opportunity for socializing with “transplants”. We sure tried, but we soon realized that it was a very different environment from life in Rochester. I wasn’t coming home to someone drinking tea in my living room. There weren’t any spur-of-the-moment dinners with the neighbors. In fact, NO ONE came for dinner unless they were staying for the weekend. (cooking for people seems to be a love language for me- so this was troublesome)
I think you see that it was a very lonely time. I was home alone with two small children all day. They were joy and light and all of those things, but I was in an unfamiliar place that felt very isolated.
Why am I sharing this? This was a pivotal time for me. Phone calls home were limited (you paid dearly for every single minute of a long-distance call in those days) So cards and letter writing seemed very inviting.
I remember receiving a letter or a card, my mom was pretty good at sending them occasionally. Her timing always seemed flawless. I was having a rough day and a card from her would pop up. I started then calling it “Happy Mail”- it was! For me letters or cards from her or my sister, my grandmother- whomever became a lifeline. It was a connection that I could touch and reread, re-experience.
So today- I encourage you to send a card. Share some love with someone who lives far away, a college student, or an elderly friend- loneliness is salt to your soul, and you have the opportunity to bring a little bit of joy and light to someone who may need it more than you could imagine.
