For some of us home was not a safe and beautiful place--it was a place of terror, and sorrow, and shame.  We do not want to go back--and we need not. The experience of some may be "Home is where the heart is"--that is true for my own two daughters who love being with us and celebrate the holidays with laughter and love--but for me "The heart is where my home is" and right now, that is hundreds of miles away from the place I was born and raised. 

Please don't misunderstand me,  I have no need for bitterness. God has made good on His promise  (spoken through the prophet Joel)  "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust have eaten." Indeed, He has--and He is.  Home has become a sanctuary from the storms of life--our home (like our heart) takes on the nature of what we put into it.

For those whose birth home, though imperfect (as all homes are) is a place of longing and wonder, you have been given a great gift.  Treasure it.  For those whose home is the one you have built since leaving the home of your birth--rejoice and be glad in it.  You too have been given a great gift.

I have found that grieving the "things that are behind", i.e. the past, is a prerequisite for embracing the joys of the present.