DYK there’s a gorgeous field of red clover on NPS land at Gettysburg National Military Park? Visiting it is one of my favorite spring rituals.

By Karen Hendricks

“You can never go home again.”

I believe it’s true… and it can be bittersweet to try. Here’s why.

It’s a phrase we often use, to explain how impossible it is to return to a previous home in our lives. Places are ever-changing. Time does not stand still. People, neighborhoods, businesses and even roads have changed since we’ve lived there. We’ve changed too. And nostalgia may have tinged the way we remember those places. The phrase comes from Thomas Wolfe’s novel, “You Can’t Go Home Again.”

I’ve been thinking about this concept of “home” a lot lately. It’s really interesting how we can define home as the very house or apartments where we live–but we can also define home as the neighborhood or town in which we live. Some people think more broadly, and they may define “home” as a county, as a specific valley, a region, or even as a state. If you’ve ever traveled abroad, you may simply identify yourself as American, with the U.S. as your home.

Home is where we feel welcome, where we feel a sense of belonging and familiarity. Home is often shared with the people we love–and the presence of those people is what makes us feel at home.

I previously lived in Gettysburg for 23 years. It’s where my husband and I bought our first home and primarily raised our family. But several years ago, we moved to the Harrisburg area (about 45 minutes from Gettysburg) to be closer to my husband’s workplace.

Yet, I return to Gettysburg often, for full days of writing and reporting, mostly for Celebrate Gettysburg magazine. It always feels familiar, as if I’m home again. I inevitably run into people I know–and I love that spontainaity and serendipity. It’s something that rarely happens where I live now, simply because the population is so much larger and my new-ish roots aren’t as far-reaching.

Returning to Gettysburg is always a little bittersweet, because it isn’t my home anymore, yet it still feels comfortable and familiar. It will always be a place that I treasure–whether it’s because of the home we once made there, our wonderful neighborhood and church and friends, all my memories that are based there, or because Gettysburg truly is a one-of-a-kind place of incredible historical significance.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to write for Celebrate Gettysburg–which in a way, helps me maintain a relationship with this special, even sacred, place and its people. Over the past dozen years, writing an article or two in every issue of the magazine has added up… to a milestone 100 articles.

So you can imagine what an honor it was… to write about my reflections on that milestone.

Read “Reflections,” from the March/April issue of Celebrate Gettysburg magazine, here.

I truly believe every person has a story, and every person’s story has value. Telling their stories has undoubtedly made me a better person. Journalism shines within our democracy when it gives voice to the voiceless and brings stories to light. Then it collectively makes us a better community.

Magazine founder and creative director Jessica Dean put together this layout and beautiful assortment of photos, gathered from the past dozen years, to introduce the article.

The concept of “home” ties into a number of my additional current magazine stories too:

Meet Harrisburg interior designer Cachet Demaine Adams in “Living Life, by Design,” Susquehanna Style’s cover story for March. We talked about the concept of “home,” within her own vibrant, warm and welcoming home.

“Home is such an important place,” Adams says. “It’s not just about making things look pretty—it’s making your space function the way you need it to. It should be a reflection of yourself.”

I’ve always been obsessed with tiny homes. Well, for as long as they’ve been around, over the past 10 years or so.

So it was a dream come true, to have the opportunity to meet a leading tiny home builder, see homes being constructed, tour the mini model homes, and learn how tiny homes are filling a giant void in today’s housing market.

Read “Mini and Mighty: Go inside the Susquehanna Valley’s booming tiny home market,” Susquehanna Style, April 2024.

Lots of people are “living small,” from Gen Z to Millennials, Gen X to Boomer retirees. The portability of tiny homes—built on wheels—makes them ideal housing options for military personnel. The affordability appeals to groups implementing housing for veterans and low-income families. Others operate tiny homes as vacation Airbnbs for supplemental income.

I have one more thing to say about this concept of “home,” as a way of coming to a conclusion. Many people believe our society is fractured today, in many ways. It’s often difficult to have conversations due to intolerance of hearing others’ points of view. That, in turn, can make listening feel like a lost art.

Over the course of an average year, I interview between 150 and 200 people. Maybe more. And while I don’t claim to be the world’s best listener, I truly do enjoy listening to others’ stories and opinions. And I find that quite often, people speak from a frame of reference that’s centered on their home. It’s something I consider, as I ask questions, and as I listen to their answers.

If people are passionate about issues, it’s quite often because those issues have the potential to affect their homes. When we stop to consider this, and bear it in mind, it could help us tap into greater empathy and compassion.

Home, after all, is a place to treasure.