Sabbatical Part 2: Ohio

“Home is where the heart is.”

“There’s no place like home.”

“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you.'” (Genesis 12:1)

Home is a concept I contemplate from time to time.
And what it means to have both roots and wings.

I am from the great state of Ohio. My hometown is Wadsworth, Ohio. When I return, there is a sense of homecoming. On this Sabbatical journey, I was able to spend 16 days with my parents in Ohio. This marked the longest period of time spent in my hometown in many years.

There is something remarkable about that feeling of rootedness to a particular place. Until I moved away for college, my whole life was lived in Wadsworth, Ohio. And there is something comforting about driving around town and seeing where you went to school. Or visiting the graves of your ancestors. Or sitting in the pew of your home church. Or shopping for groceries and running into old neighbors. Or cheering on the hometown team (the Cleveland Guardians).

For those who stay in their hometowns, these may be daily occurrences.
But for those of us who move away, the memories may come flooding back in a powerful way when returning to one’s heart home.

The folks at the Pew Research Center conducted a study in 2008 called “American Mobility: Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home?” The researchers discovered that more than six in ten American adults have moved to a new community at least once in their lives. One has to wonder how these numbers have changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Though 57% of adults have not lived outside their current home state.  Around one in five adults say that the place they consider home in their heart isn’t where they’re living now.  People identify these places as their heart home because it’s where they were born or raised, where they lived the longest, where their family is from, or specifically where they went to high school.  On the other hand, when the researchers asked why people never left their hometown, “stayers” often related that it’s because of family ties, the desire to remain where they grew up, the belief that their community is a good place to raise children, or good job and business opportunities.[1] 

In my younger years, if I’m honest, there was a sense of wanting to “move on” from Wadsworth. Life is short and the world is wide after all! As I’ve gotten older, I can more fully appreciate my hometown and feel gratitude for the community that helped raise me. Even as my wings have taken me to North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, my roots are in Ohio—and that is a blessing. Roots and wings indeed!

[1] D’Vera Cohn and Rich Morin, “American Mobility: Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home?” Updated December 29, 2008, Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2008/12/17/who-moves-who-stays-put-wheres-home/

Photos by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.