“HOME IS WHERE YOUR STORY BEGINS”

By: James F. O’Neil

I have a small wooden sign in my man-cave with the words “home,” “story,” and “begins.”

What a neat sign with a neat saying.

Many craft stores, country gift shops, and little antique storefronts have made these kinds of signs popular, signs of warm, fuzzy slogans or aphorisms or “down-home” good feelings.

We like to buy these, put them on walls expressing that “Family Is Everything” or over a bed “Always Kiss Me Goodnight” or in a study “Home Is Where Your Story Begins.”

Perhaps “This Is As Good As It Gets” might be found over a door in a summer cottage. 

Thus it begins: a vacation, a story (“What I Did Last Summer”), a life, a death, a beginning or an ending, a love (“Love Is Blind”), stress (“Keep Calm And Carry On”), or friendship (“BFF”)–or one I really do like: “Love’s Last Gift Is Remembrance.” 

Stories are everywhere, where we look to see or find them.  And if “Home Is Where The Heart Is,” then that is where a story can begin. 

We must tell our story: “Once upon a time, when I was six and living with my grandmother, …”    Our listeners depend on it.

© James F. O’Neil  2013