Home is a strange concept to me. When I say, ‘I’m going home’ I don’t see a place, a house or a single community. I see people. Family. Friends. My home is an idea, more a feeling, really, of wherever my loved ones just happen to be.
I live in the States. Within these States, I’ve lived in five different cities in three wildly different states. (Too many ‘states’??? Too bad…caffeine high…)
After moving across country as a kid, I guess you could say I lived life perpetually in the clouds. I was never fully here nor there. I was always writing, drawing, playing music, creating to the sounds of voices and pictures in my head of lives I saw myself living in different places. I told stories of those characters who brought me comfort and salvation in a place that is, to this day, so foreign to me.
My head and my heart have always journeyed farther than designated boundaries, though I spent the majority of my childhood in a town where ‘Town Limit’ wasn’t just a sign, it was a terrifying dare to those born and bred “small town.” I dreamed of escape, a most un-southern idea that was widely frowned upon.
While I have gained a deep respect and maybe even distant love for this world I grew up in, I feel complete and fully satisfied in knowing that my home is simply wherever my loved ones are. Whether they’re all in one place or not. My home is not a stationary dwelling or a single town, but a world of wonder and love.
Strangely, I do think that’s a difficult concept for many to come to terms with, but a lesson necessary for learning how to cope with life in general. Having and putting down roots is certainly not wrong, in any way, but I do feel that once you’re able to differentiate the tangible from the intangible, a location from a soul, you gain a better sense of belonging to a greater community and people, and in turn, universal home.
Does that make any sense?
I know – all of this from a cup of coffee?! Today…apparently so. I guess voices and sights from the past brought on a bit of self-reflection as I’m visiting “home” this week to puppy-sit my family’s two old, OLD, little babes. They feel like home…
…and it’s a good thing, too, because I don’t even have a bed in this house! Ha!
XO
I am with you. I call so many places, people, and fur babies home.
So many fur babies 😉 LOL