When I was growing up there was a large tea olive tree that grew on the north side of our porch. Its fragrant flowers became a soothing balm for my adolescent emotions.
In August I toured a garden home that I would soon purchase and to which I have now moved, When I walked in the front door it had the welcoming feel of “home.” By the time I had walked through the house and out to the back carport I was already imagining my furniture in its spaces and envisioning myself here.
But it was walking out the back door that sealed the deal for me. Walking out under the carport I smelled a familiar fragrance….tea olive blooms. There was a hedge of trimmed up tea olive trees with slightly overgrown crowns and they were full of blooms. I walked over to the fence their stately stature mirrored and breathed in the aroma of home. Tonight, December 8, 2024, the eve of my official return to homestead residency in Montgomery, the tea olives are still blooming and I have come to think of them as God’s confirmation that this change, and all the changes that accompany this major move, bear the special favor of God.
this is HOME.
