George Monroe is dying. Before he goes he has a few things to put in order. His relationship with his dead father, and his relationship with his contemptuous son, Sam. His father abruptly killed himself, George’s mother and another woman while drunk driving. He also permanently injured a little girl. And Sam is slowly killing himself with drugs and recklessness.
In Life as a House George tells Sam they are going to work together to build a house on the ocean front property George’s father left him. After George’s death, Sam gives the house to the injured little girl (now grown), and we have a sense that all is right with the Monroe Family now. Over the credits we hear George’s voice:
“I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn’t need to be big. It didn’t even need to be beautiful. It just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life. I built myself a house.”
Thinking of your life as a house? Are you a big house or little one? Are you fancy or plain? Our houses may all be stylistically different but inside they’re all basically the same. A few walls and a roof. It protects you. It keeps you warm in winter and dry in the rain. But underneath there’s the foundation, there’s the strength and you build on that.
Surely your house has marks on the walls and scratches on the floor. They all do. So you repaint the walls and buff the floor. There are things in the basement, dark things, you never show company. Eventually you sort through those boxes, keep the stuff you need and throw out the rest. Everyday you decide how will you decorate your house, your life.
Today is my birthday and, strangely enough, I’m selling my house. My life is moving from one place to another. I’m taking what I’ve built and hoping it’s portable. I’m hoping the foundation is strong enough. I’m moving on, growing as a person and adding on to my life. As I look around my old house, then ahead to the next year, I wonder if my life as a house is moving in a good direction? Am I becoming what I’m meant to be? I hope so. I also hope I’m increasing my property value!
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I love this beautiful post, it so speaks to my soul. I landed in my current place as the result of a crisis, having actually dubbed the move “Operation Promised Land.” About 18 months later, I completely redecorated in response to a prompt to “upgrade”; now (18 mos. later…?) I feel about to toss almost everything I own, to “shake loose.” What’s interesting is that being a “local nomad,” I would seek new digs that reflected my evolution; here, I’m watching my surroundings change around me, and growing in response to that. This home will hold a story I’ll remember all my life, and I look forward to what that will have been when it’s finally time to move on.