Mention security in the same sentence as “home” and most people think of alarm systems, child-proof locks on cabinets or grab bars in the shower.
But emotional security is far less tangible – yet, just as important – as physical safety.
When we are at home, we ought to experience a sense of satisfaction and peace of mind. Certain houses – like certain memorable love affairs – render us calm, free from doubt or fear. So overpowering is the feeling of safety that no amount of logic or attempts at reason can extinguish it.
No one survives for long, in a house permeated by a sense of uneasiness. Human beings need a peaceful, positive place to shelter them. Fortunately, that homey sense of safety and belonging can move with us from one house to the next, and from one phase of our life to another.
Webster’s defines “secure” as “sturdy or strong, not likely to fail.”
Ideally, the home you live in ought to exemplify those traits, too.
Excerpted from “Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart,” an e-book by Renee Garrison and Tom Szumlic
“Norwegian Fence” photo by Jamieson Thomas