“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” – Maya Angelou
During our lives there are some things we get comfortable with almost to the point of taking advantage of them. It is this comfort that we benchmark our lives against and always find a sense of ease and safety with each passing day. No matter how far away we go, home is always there for us. It never leaves us, cheats on us or turns its back to us.
It’s allegiance and loyalty is without question and the sense you feel as you close you eyes, feel its touch, breath in its smell and see every memory race through your head is priceless. It is the warmth and coziness of home that continuously reminds me who I am and how I became the person I am today.
Every time I return home, I see something new. Though nothing changes, it is always different yet still the same feeling I had as a child.
The comfort of the hometown deli, the sound of grasshoppers at night, the safety of living in a town where you never lock your doors at night, the sight of a million stars at the top of the golf course, the spirit of the Chiefs, basketball at Modick, soccer all around, the summers at the lake, remembrance of those we lost, patriotism, the comfort of the Old River Styx Bridge, rolling hills and the feeling of home.
This is my ode to Hopatcong, the safe haven that bore me and raised it. It is a town with a quiet rich heritage that continues to shine.
Its the parks, the diners, the locals, the morning dew, the local sports, the children and the air that we breath that makes home the only place you will ever know.
Be free, see the world and experience the magic and wonder of different cultures and different great natural wonders but never forget where you are from. It is and will always remained ingrained inside you.
Home is always safe in your heart!
“When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn’t the old home you missed but your childhood” – Sam Ewing
“No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place 
like home.” – L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
“Home is the place, where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” – Robert Frost
“I’m laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone,
Going home, where the new york city winters aren’t bleedin’ me.” – Paul Simon, The Boxer
“Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.” – Christian Morganstern
“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.” – Unknown
“Home should be an oratorio of the memory, singing to all our after life melodies and harmonies of old remembered joy.” – Henry Ward Beecher
By Mark A. Leon
Your presence wrapped in an aura of wonder