Home: noun;
One’s permanent place of residence, where one resides
A place of origin, one’s own country
An objective in various games, to return home, home base/home plate
– Merriam Webster Dictionary
The word 'home' is evocative.
When someone says the word home, it conjures up images: a comfortable, cosy place that you find at the end of your day, or, perhaps, a cottage with a garden.
Home is more than a single location, it is more than a place. It is a concept. It is a sense of comfort, of familiarity, of belonging. A place that is ‘yours,’ whether rented or shared. It is a space that you are expected and welcome to occupy. A place that you create to meet your needs and to feel the way a home should feel to you.
But there are different ways to feel at home.
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Home: noun;
One’s permanent place of residence, where one resides
A place of origin, one’s own country
An objective in various games, to return home, home base/home plate
– Merriam Webster Dictionary
The word 'home' is evocative.
When someone says the word home, it conjures up images: a comfortable, cosy place that you find at the end of your day, or, perhaps, a cottage with a garden.
Home is more than a single location, it is more than a place. It is a concept. It is a sense of comfort, of familiarity, of belonging. A place that is ‘yours,’ whether rented or shared. It is a space that you are expected and welcome to occupy. A place that you create to meet your needs and to feel the way a home should feel to you.
But there are different ways to feel at home.
As someone who has been living nomadically for a few years, I don’t have a traditional home. For me, home has been those places that, upon arrival, just feel ‘right.’ A sensation that is so difficult to describe, like a swell of calm that briefly stills the restless stirring of the blood, or that ‘perfect fit’ feeling of well-worn boots.
As someone who has been living nomadically for a few years, I don’t have a traditional home. For me, home has been those places that, upon arrival, just feel ‘right.’ A sensation that is so difficult to describe, like a swell of calm that briefly stills the restless stirring of the blood, or that ‘perfect fit’ feeling of well-worn boots. If you, like me, are someone who relishes experience and novelty, then this sensation is all the more visceral when found.
I suspect I was always destined to live a little differently. As the daughter of an immigrant, both my parents moved around throughout their lives and loved to travel. I am convinced they instilled these strange passions in me, through nature and nurture, which is why I think about home a lot.
I hail from cities and they are where I feel most comfortable, they feel most homelike to me. The fast paced airs, the flashing lights and those precious moments of stillness in amongst all the chaos. Cities are like people, they too, contain multitudes. They have characters, quirks. Every city is its own unique world with its own secrets and habits. They contain flavours, slang, body language and attitude. In their histories, cities remember the worlds that have been. They hold fast to the scars of war and the footpaths of hope.
I suspect I was always destined to live a little differently. As the daughter of an immigrant, both my parents moved around throughout their lives and loved to travel. I am convinced they instilled these strange passions in me, through nature and nurture, which is why I think about home a lot.
I love creating a semblance of home wherever I might be. I love travelling with a bag full of much-loved keepsakes that can make a temporary resting place feel like mine.
But I’m also looking forward to all the different homes I have yet to enjoy.
I enjoy mentally building my future home, designing and decorating it in a way that fits me like a glove, creating a space that I long to return to. I am ready to settle down again, even for just a little while, to put up art and unpack my bags. I am ready to create a home and be there.
I wonder what it will feel like to belong somewhere. What does that mean? Is it running into a friend on the sidewalk to steal a quick coffee and a catch up before hurrying back into your own respective worlds? Is it recognising someone from the show or art opening you went to the other night as they bike past days later? Is it being able to give directions to a stranger? Is it embodying a certain flair or mannerisms or way of moving through the world that is discernible to others who also belong there?
I look forward to filling my home with the things that will make it mine. Our things are a reflection of ourselves, an extension of our likes and personalities. Keepsakes of times past, souvenirs from places we have travelled to, visited or lived. In French, ‘souvenir’ is one of the words for ‘memory’. These things are physical, tangible artifacts that tether us to the places and people we have been. On the journey of our lives, we evolve and change but hold onto these previous versions of ourselves through mementos that we carry with us, that we adorn our homes with.
I look forward to filling my home with the things that will make it mine. Our things are a reflection of ourselves, an extension of our likes and personalities. Keepsakes of times past, souvenirs from places we have travelled to, visited or lived. In French, ‘souvenir’ is one of the words for ‘memory’. These things are physical, tangible artifacts that tether us to the places and people we have been.
I thought about home a lot this year because I ended up staying somewhere longer than I had anticipated. I’m still there. Some part of me feels like I am on my way somewhere else, heading to another place, but where I am at the moment is home – for now. And it is a wonderful feeling.
Home is more than a place or even the people you find there. It is a feeling, a sense of contentment, calm, snugness even. It is like pulling on your favourite winter coat for the first cool day of the year, or returning to the warm embrace of an old friend.
Home is a place that you want to be, one you long to return to.
Home is peace.
This is the first one!
Published tomorrow!