All the Places to Love

As a child, I loved being at home.  I felt loved and safe there.  But I always had the need to find special places outside of my house that were private.  These places also felt like a part of home just for me.  When we lived in Sugar City, Idaho, I remember a certain tree I liked to sit under. I felt like the tree was my own special place.  As a young adolescent living in Cedar City, Utah, we had a pair of large bushes in our yard.  I liked to climb in between the bushes and pretend I was a pioneer or read my book or just sit and think.

This tradition didn't stop as I got older.  When I went to BYU my freshmen year, I found several places across campus that became like second homes to me.  There was the certain couch in the Law Library that I napped on so often it felt like my personal living room, the large tree outside of the Maeser building that I loved to sit under and study when the weather was nice.  I even had a certain cubicle in the library that began to feel like my own personal desk.

I miss all of these places, but I am glad I have had the opportunity to discover each one of them.

Because our upcoming move is on my mind, I have been thinking about places I love here and will miss.  Of course, I will miss my little home so much.  But there are other places here that are so full of the emotions of home: Wines Park, the city library, my church building, the streets of this neighborhood that I walk so often with friends or with my family, BYU Campus, the Provo and Mt. Timpanogos temple grounds, Kara and Tiffany's front lawn, Juli's backyard, the Children's museum, my front porch . . . even my local grocery store.  I will miss these places.

I know there are parks and libraries and churches and museums and grocery stores and friends waiting for us in Denver.  For awhile, though, they won't be home.  Yet.  But they will become home with time, and I expect we'll discover even more wonderful places to fall in love with.  I feel excited to add to my list of places to love.

P.S. I stole this title from a wonderful picture book that we own; I recommend you read it if you haven't.  It's beautiful.