Where is home?
I am feeling homesick. The problem is that I don’t know where home is. They say that home is where the heart is…if only that was a simple answer. Perhaps there is something about only being a month away from returning to the U.S. that has me longing for my home land. This last nine months has been my longest time away from the States. My mom has taken a vow to see if she can go the entire time in the U.S. without having rice. She is over it. It is hard to know if it is better to talk to more people from home, eat more french fries, drink coke, drink wine, look at In Style Magazine or if it is better to put all of that aside for a few weeks and just throw myself in the water. Maybe if I do nothing that reminds me of home, I won’t miss it so much. The weird thing about this is that just last year I was in Jersey and went I felt home sick I’d make chai or Indian food.
I started reading this book last night called The Christ of the Indian Road by E. Stanley Jones. As a foreigner who committed his life to India this is what he wrote
I felt that we who come from a foreign land should have the inward feeling, if not the outward sign, of being adopted sons of India, and we should offer our message as a homage to our adopted land; respect should characterise our every attitude; India whould be home, her future our future, an we her servants for Jesus’ sake.
A few months ago my friend Hena who is an N.R.I. (Non-resident Indian) told me that I was a real American Desi. I was flattered. I love India. But can I bind myself to India as Jones suggests? Should I? Is this my calling?
I write this as I am preparing to go home for five weeks. Then I will return to India for at least six months. I will always love India, but is living here my vocation or season of my life? I do not know. Yes, though some of my friends may not believe it I am a “J” (on Meyers-Briggs). In other words, I like to make plans. I like to know what is next.
