On searching for "Home"

About "Home", when you read this, I'd be interested to hear if any of you have any "home rules" to add. I'm betting that you do. An excerpt from an earlier letter to my family follows:

I think that searching for home is a longing that is common for folks like us with scattered roots. I know it's been a preoccupation with me for most of my life...waiting for that one place that is both fulfilling to the soul and comfortable for the mind and body. The truth is that it is with you all the time, wherever you are. You only have to accept it. My opinion? (if you will allow me),"Home" is you. It's the totality of your human experience, dwelling in the environment you choose for it. I'm convinced that the reason God gave us a physical body is so that we can make and nurture our home anywhere on this earth. The most important room in that body is our mind, and we have to be strident in our quest to keep it clean, open and active, tempered by our heart...but most of all, satisfied with our relationship with God and the gift of life.

While it's true that some people have that one place that always smells like cookies, most people have a few cobwebs in the corners of their "home". And it's a good thing too! Where would we be with no spiders? Let them do their job, wonder at the miracle structure of the cobweb...but be careful to live most of your life on that open plane where all of the love, possibilities and faith abide. Get out a good stiff broom and sweep away at self doubt, hate, disappointment and blame...polish the floor and skate gleefully on the gleaming surface of your foundation.

Some of "Paula's Home Rules" :

Thank God for who you are, where you are.
Stay as healthy as it is humanly possible for you.
Do not dwell on things unaccomplished and places missed or lost.
Do not worry or fret needlessly. Learn the difference between healthy concern and worry.
Celebrate being here on earth every chance that you get.
Accept love, and give it back with all of your heart.
Fight like mad against hatefulness and jealousy.
Accept the differences of others.
Use your eyes to survey the beauty around you, use your hands to keep it beautiful.
Actively seek the company and friendship of others, be a good friend.
FOCUS on someone else at least once a day.
FORGIVE yourself. Forgive others. We are all struggling to be what we should. (Some have a greater challenge.)
Leave something behind, even if it's only your kindness to one other human being.

No matter how many times you fail, go back to the rules and start again. Do not give up.
When it's time to go, say goodbye, thank God for having been here, smile and leave with grace.
These are my rules and I know them by heart. It doesn't mean that you can look at me and I will be a perfect reflection of a well kept "home". It does mean that I've given a great deal of thought to it, and that the rules reflect my own view of how things "should" be. When things are going right, it all smells like those cookies to me.

Love,
Paula