Home for the Holidays
It’s December, and the holidays are fast approaching…
I still feel them in my body before I think about them…the shortening days, the smell of cold air, the quiet pull inward…When I was a child, Christmas meant one thing above all else…
HOME…
Being Italian, Christmas Eve was everything…The house came alive early in the day…My mother and father moving through the kitchen with purpose and precision, each holding their role without needing to say a word…Mom working on the traditional holiday fare…roast beef, pasta, salad, roasted potatoes etc….Dad immersed in the ritual Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes…the oysters and cherrystones, the stuffed clams, lobster casserole, fillet of sole, roasted octopus…Christmas Dinner wasn’t just a meal…it was an offering…
People filled the house…Family came from everywhere…Friends who were family came too…It was loud, crowded, imperfect, joyful…The kind of warmth you feel in your heart, not just the room…
That’s how HOME was shaped for me…
People…
Food…
Community…
Belonging…
The world has changed since then…The way the holidays land now can feel strained, hurried, stripped of their softness…There’s a lot pressing in from the outside, a lot of noise, a lot of doing…Sometimes it feels like the meaning gets lost somewhere in the lead up…
And yet…when the actual moment arrives…the real thing is still there…
Love still shows up…
Joy still finds cracks to come through...
Connection still matters…
Mike and I have always protected that…
Whether it was squeezing far too many people into a tiny London living room, or opening our home in Asheville to anyone who didn’t have somewhere to land, the intention stayed the same…If you didn’t have a place to go…you had a place with us…Laughter, conversation, shared tables, shared stories…That sense of togetherness became one of our favorite parts of the holidays…
And then, in a very real way, we built that intention into the fabric of our lives…
We created Missed Path Sanctuary…
This place holds what matters most to us, not just seasonally, but every day…The sanctuary is home…to us, to the horses, to the other rescued animals who now live without expecting to move on…It’s also home to the volunteers who show up consistently, who learn names and personalities, who give their time and receive something just as meaningful in return…
People find their way here carrying all kinds of things…Grief…
Exhaustion…Hope…Curiosity…Children meet horses and stand a little taller.. Elders light up when a miniature horse walks into the room and brings back something they thought was gone…Visitors arrive expecting an horse experience…and leave feeling steadier, calmer, more themselves…
The spirit people associate with Christmas lives here year round…
PEACE...
GOOD WILL…
LOVE…
COMMUNITY…
KINDNESS…
COMPASSION…
A SENSE OF BEING CONNECTED TO SOMETHING GREATER THAN OURSELVES…
These aren’t ideas to us…They’re lived values…
My parents are gone now…They never got to see what the life they built grew into…But I see them every day…I see them in the eyes of a horse who no longer has to wonder where they’ll end up…I see them in the faces of people who come here seeking comfort…I see them in the simple act of opening the gate, setting another place at the table, making room…
The home they modeled didn’t disappear…
It expanded…
It is our deepest wish that your holiday season holds the warmth, love, and belonging of HOME… And if this season feels thin or lonely, if home feels distant or complicated, know this…
There is a place here where you are welcome…
Because everyone deserves to be…
HOME...
