Some Friends & A Place to Call Home By Julia Peattie

She sang it out and it resonated in my soul. I didn’t quite know exactly why yet. Upon hearing the lyrics from the musician Mōzi, I knew they were special. As she speculates in the song, maybe she’ll end up “with some friends and a place to call home,” and the hope of the simple things gives me hope too (1:01-1:04).

The word “home” has a few definitions, such as, “one’s place of residence,” or “the social unit formed by a family living together, or even “a familiar or usual setting,” (“home,” Merriam-Webster, 2022).

More than all of those definitions, the word “home” has a feeling. One can feel at peace when hearing the word, like a deep belly breath can finally be exhaled. Another could feel tension, noticing, with practice, that their skin may tingle and muscles tighten up. The feelings are widespread and ever-changing.

I feel the hope in Mōzi’s lyrics because I hear the deep longing she has for a sense of home, a sense of safety and peace, of familiarity, and comfort. Even if she, by suggestion of the other lyrics, is a “lover of change,” the home is still a launching pad.

For the last six and a half years, my launching pad has been the Nest. The Nest is the home built in 1910 that I’ve shared with multiple other ladies as we have navigated post-grad life, all the way into our late 20s and early 30s. The house is a sacred space for me. It’s a haven, a refuge, a place to laugh, and a place to cry. The opened door welcomes you in like a warm hug.

When I moved into the house in 2016 as a girl learning what it meant to be vulnerable, to have deep friendships, and having the desire to create a sense of family with those I had around me, I had no idea what was to come for me.

Creating a sense of home in the Nest was a process. A shared space required a lot of compromise, a lot of honest conversations, and a lot of “why wouldn’t they just wash the dish now instead of letting it get crusty in the sink all afternoon?” I knew it was worth the struggle, worth the hard conversations, worth the inconveniences in my life. The Nest slowly became a home, not just to me and the other girls who lived there, but for other friends, for people we just met, and for new neighbors who quickly became friends.

Growing up in Sunday School, I have a specific memory of my Sunday School teacher telling our small group of about three to five pre-teens and teenagers in the class that she would often pray that her kids would have two good friends. She prayed for one on each side to help them in times of trouble, to encourage them, and be there for them. This prayer has roots in the story in Exodus 17 when the people of Israel were fighting against the Amalekites.

If Moses’ arms were up, Israel was winning, but as soon as Moses’ arms started dropping, the victory began slipping from their hands over to the Amalekites. On either side of Moses was Aaron and Hur, providing a stone as a place for Moses to sit, and holding up his arms with their own. When Moses was weak, he had his two friends on either side of him to help him, reminding him of the power of God through him (ESV Bible, Exodus 17:8-16).

I’m grateful that I’ve had the privilege of forming friendships that feel like that of Moses, Aaron, and Hur. When the battles got tough, they didn’t go running, but pressed in and loved well. The depth of relationship came sometimes because of the hardships, because of the blood, sweat, wounds, and tiredness.

The spaces you live in can be created from chaos or created from peace. God is a God of peace, and as we welcome Him into our spaces, literally or figuratively, our sense of home and friendship grows. Through the processes of creating friendships and a feeling of home, I think we can say, like Mōzi, “maybe we’ll come out on the other side, with some friends and a place to call our own, with some friends and a place to call home” (0:57-1:04).

Citations:

Mōzi. Lyrics to Some Friends and a Place to Call Home. MusicBed, 2022, https://www.musicbed.com/songs/some-friends-and-a-place-to-call-home/

“Home.” Merriam-Webster.com 2022. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/home (24 August 2022).

The ESV Bible. Crossway, 2001, www.biblegateway.com.

About the author:

Julia works as an administrative assistant in a seminary, specifically for a program that helps renew and revitalize pastors and local churches, while also spending her afternoons and evenings as a ghostwriter. In between all of that, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family, watching Korean dramas with some type of yummy food, weaving wall tapestries on her loom for her Etsy shop, reading a good book, or keeping up with her 590+ day streak on Duolingo ( she is learning French!).