Home--the Healing Place of the Soul

There is a kind of domestic diplomacy that could make all the difference in how happy home is, and how happy we are⎯remembering, as a Greek saying said it: Home is “the healing place of the soul.” “Diplomacy in the home is not a secretive and crafty science,” said one writer on the subject, “but is governed by the mild laws of reason and benevolence…. Other forms of government come and go…but the family…endures”¹⎯both in times of happiness and in times of hardship. And at home we would always well remember to be at our best, with tolerance and understanding, character and common sense, consideration and kindness⎯always kindness remembering always that there are no perfect people and no infallible opinions. A home isn’t one man’s will. It isn’t one woman’s will. And it isn’t surrender to a child’s willfulness. It is a blending of all that is best, with reason and with recognition of everyone’s rights⎯a place of order and efficiency, which are both essential; but a place also where everyone can relax and live, and not be on tension all the time⎯with affection⎯always affection⎯for the world would be little or much less except for family affection⎯with firmness and strength, with gentleness and respect, with freedom to discuss, with willingness to listen, and with an understanding of mistakes. Oh, why is it we seek so many other answers when the ultimate answer is obvious: the teaching and integrity of home, love and loyalty at home, with little of quarreling, less of crying, much of comforting, and courtesy and kindness⎯and the example of home, where parents show by their lives how their children should live. And how can children learn lessons they have never seen lived? Heaven help us to be our best, and make for all a hallowed and a happy home⎯for home is “the healing place of the soul.”