Borta Bra men Hemma Bäst

There is an old Swedish proverb "borta bra men hemma bäst." Away is great, but home is the best.
Having been away for a month and a few days I can heartily affirm the proverb. It was wonderful to be in Sweden, to be among folks I came to enjoy and like, and to see parts of the country I'd never seen before in their company. Afterwards, it was great to meet my cousin for dinner, to travel to Västerås to be with another favorite cousin and then to wander the back streets of Stockholm, far off the tourist path.
It was an amazing four days in Chicago with my sister and with friends I hadn't seen for many years. Our trip to Minnesota was fantastic.
The trip home, from Aitkin and then from the Twin Cities was filled with surprises. We got off the beaten path here too and took U.S. 69 from the Iowa border to Des Moines. Along the way we stopped at the Norwegian Immigrant monument in Northwest Iowa, and then in Forest City, at our sister school, Waldorf College.
What a trip!
But how great it is to be home!
We got home and the house was a bit musty, but that didn't matter, we were home.
We got home and there was a pile of bills waiting to be paid and an even larger pile of credit card come ons waiting to be thrown away. That didn't matter either.
We got home and I've been away so long that I feel as if I need retraining on names and places and code numbers and the like.
It's home. That's what really matters. It's home and comfortable and the place we want to be because it is ours. This is where we live and where we're known and where we belong.
Not only that, all our stuff is here, so we don't have to worry about what to do with our stuff.
Home, ahh. "Borta bra men hemma bäst."