This lamp made this our home. The first thing we bought when we came back, the first thing I saw that said, "Here is where you can start again, again."

We put the $12 lampshade on an old lamp we left behind, black iron and pull cord. We set it on the abandoned end table (my mother collects many abandoned things). Slowly, a home came into view.

The wall shelf was a gift, a Christmas present made of liptus. My favourite type of wood. We couldn't take it with us before, but it waited for us here, and when we returned it was the first thing nailed in. A photo collage, a winter print of the Hundertwasser the neighborhood in Vienna, the Attestation of Pilgrimage to Israel (I was 19 and in love for the second time), the five of us framed in Trim. God bless our family, it says. And our Compassion children peeking out from behind school uniforms. There may even be a stone hippo from Kenya.

It is cluttered, but our memories are displayed. When I walk in this room, the first thing I see is our life.

I say it's not a house, not our forever home, not where we'll stay. But I look at this picture and I know we did well here. Are doing well here.