A house is not a home

Labor Day is a marker of sorts, although not necessarily linked with the change in seasons. September can be unseasonably warm and August can be cool. Saturday was a glorious day, perfect for those end of summer gatherings, the last swim or a hike in the mountains. Then we suffered through a cold rainy day on Sunday before waking up on Monday, Labor Day, to one of the loveliest days of the summer. The weather is certainly fickle.

I expect most of us have been thinking about the hurricane and devastating rains that have destroyed much of Houston and Beaumont, Texas. It does make one stop and think about what is a home? Watching the television news, hearing the stories of those people who had flown in to assist with all the rescue efforts and those who were returning to determine the damage you wonder? How would I feel if my home flooded? What are the things that really matter?

Furniture, appliances, cars, grills and dishes can be replaced. Art work, even when valuable, can be covered by insurance and probably replaced in one way or another. It is the handwritten letters, the artwork created by children, the piece of jewelry owned by a grandmother that cause one pain and the feeling of loss. Those simple things that have little if any monetary value. A totem and connection to something in our life that had special meaning.

The definition of a house is “a building for human habitation” and a home is “a place where one lives permanently.” It is the memories we create in a house that make the structure a home. In the words of Robert Frost in his well- known poem, “The Death of the Hired Man” “…It all depends on what you mean by home. …Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. …”

During apple season, or perhaps at any time of the year, there is nothing that makes a house feel more inviting then the scent of an apple pie wafting through the air. I try to keep my pie as simple as possible.

Apple Pie

5 or 6 cups apples
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon clove or nutmeg
1 ½ tablespoon olive oil

And what is a warm apple pie without a large scoop of local vanilla ice-cream? A taste memory that will stay with us when we think about being at home.