Skip to Main Content
Women of the ELCA
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Tools For Leaders
  • Publications
  • Daily Grace
  • Contact
  • Ministry & Action
    • Discipleship
    • Justice
      • Human Trafficking
      • Racial Justice Advocacy
      • Racial Justice Advocacy Network resources
      • Domestic Violence
    • Membership
    • Stewardship
      • Thankofferings
      • Faithful Friends
      • Katie’s Fund
      • Gift Planning
    • Special Initiatives
      • Raising Up Healthy Women & Girls
      • Dear Friend in Christ
    • Scholarships
      • Lutheran laywomen
      • Lutheran Ordained Ministry
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Events
  • About
    • History
    • Executive Board
    • Staff
    • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Tools For Leaders
  • Publications
  • Daily Grace
  • Contact
« Back to WELCA Blog

Where is home?
by Linda Post Bushkofsky

6.11.2012
|
Post

There are many things I love about my home state of Pennsylvania: Goldberger Peanut Chews, Unique pretzels and Lebanon bologna in the food category; 250-hundred-year-old stone farmhouses with tiger lilies blooming all around; drivers who actually understand what it means to yield when entering a limited-access highway. There’s one thing, however, that always produces an involuntary smile as soon as I arrive in Pennsylvania: the mountains.

I lived in Pennsylvania for my first 38 years, and I was always surrounded by mountains. I didn’t realize how much they were part of who I was until I moved to Minnesota 15 years ago. The flatness there, and now in Illinois where I’ve lived for the last 10 years, can sometimes be almost suffocating. And it’s not just the flatness. The variety of trees growing on Pennsylvania’s mountains ensures a most beautiful array of fall colors with the changing leaves.

Minnesota writer Paul Gruchow has said that “a home is the place in the present where one’s past and one’s future come together, the crossroads between history and heaven.” (Grassroots: The Universe of Home, Milkweed Editions 1995.) Gruchow writes about nostalgia, pointing out that in its Greek roots nostalgia literally means the return to home. It’s the clinical term for homesickness, he writes, “for the desire to be rooted in a place—to know clearly, that is, what time it is.” And here is the key for me: nostalgia recognizes the truth “that we cannot know where we are now unless we can remember where we have come from.”

Home for me now is here in Illinois, but I know that because I know where I have come from, and that is the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania and all that they symbolize for me. And yes, there are times when I’m quite nostalgic about those mountains.

Linda Post Bushkofsky is executive director.

Share
No Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Categories

  • Post (1,261)
  • News (295)
    • Gathering 2021 (9)
    • Triennial Convention 2021 (7)
  • Devotions (76)
  • 2122 (3)
  • Uncategorized (2)
Women of the ELCA
7h
Women of the ELCA
@WomenoftheELCA

What's your story? #WomensHistoryMonth womenoftheelca.org/blog/post/…

Expand reply reply retweet retweet favorite favorite
Back to home

8765 W. Higgins Rd.

Chicago IL 60631

800-638-3522

[email protected]

Stay In Touch

Sign up for the WELCA Newsletter

Explore WELCA
  • Ministry & Action
  • Daily Grace
  • Resource Library
  • Events
  • Blog
  • News
  • About WELCA
  • Tools For Leaders
  • Publications
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Photos
Explore Publications

Bold Cafe

A Lutheran perspective for women of Christian faith or any woman who is interested in how faith relates to the issues facing women today.

Gather Magazine

A mix of articles, theological reflections, devotions and stories of comfort and challenge that help readers grow in faith.

Cafe Podcast

Subscribe to our podcast:

Click to subscribe

© Copyright 2023 Women of the ELCA. All Rights Reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
© Copyright 2023 Women of the ELCA. All Rights Reserved.