As you enter my home, gushes of candle-smelling air immediately overtake your senses. Sweet smelling scents like freshly baked cookies. My house, reeking from the smell of knowledge and protection.
Then it hits you.
Ideas rushing through your mind. Ideas of work and of success. Motivation punches you in the face until you do something productive. Parents gone for work, building, cleaning, paying bills, cleaning. It reassures me that my parents care so much for me, to put up with this everyday.
We gather at the dinner table in the afternoon. That’s when we talk about what happened that day, or what confused us. Just our thoughts and emotions were during the day. Everyday we go through the ritual, of sitting and talking together in fear that if we don’t, we will loose contact. That we won’t want to talk to each other anymore.
Friends gathering up together at Central Park, going, who knows where after. To the Civic Center, or the Library, maybe even LoLo’s. Staying out all day hanging out having fun. The sun, an oven heating up the day. Kids running around in their yards, not having a care in the world. Children playing in the snow, leaves, in the water.
When the day starts to turn to night, children return home to continue their fun indoors. With their siblings and or parents. Never taking the time to think about the negatives. Thinking life is easy like the ABC’s.  Staying up late on a Saturday night listening to the sound of the night. Cars driving past, the wind blowing past the house, the train horn in the distance, music from the next door neighbors. Calming sounds of the wind rustling the leaves on a tree. Cricket’s chirps a nature's siren.
Waking the next morning to a new chance to start something. A new day to do whatever anyone wants. Families only fearing their children getting hurt, death of a loved one, or financial issues. Families hope for happiness of everyone in the family. Wealth and a healthy lifestyle for everyone. Parents wishing their kids a better life than they once had. Children not thinking about anything but the games they’re going to play. Playing in the park, playground, with their pets. Anything their little minds desire. Their minds coming up with billions of ideas. Stopping themselves only for a snack and a drink. Then back to whatever they were doing before.
Challenging their friends in sports, novels, or tongue twisters. Like, Peter Piper Picked A Peck Of Pickled Peppers. Maybe even re enacting their favorite comics. When Batman punches Joker, WHAM. Or when the Green Lantern flies above the city. WHOOSH. But what is the most important part of a family in all this? The simple reassurance that your family is with you can encourage the young to do good in the neighborhood. Your house, a place to go whenever you feel down, exhausted, hungry, or need motivation. Homes keep you safe from the worst possible events. Your home is where your heart is. And my heart is here, in Elmwood Park. Inside my house of 10 years. This is where I call home. My reassurance spot, my comfort place. Where I do all my best work. Right here, in Elmwood Park.