What Feels Like "Home" to You?
December 02, 2014
Home is a full fridge and a full pantry. Home is being awoken to pokes by little fingers and wet kisses from a little mouth each and every morning. Home is the smell of food cooking in the kitchen from my bedroom. Home is safety. Home is the familiar glow of a tv at night. Home is the couch with the sunken in cushions. Home is the smell of grass in the spring and barbecue in the summer. Home is Christmas music while putting ornaments on a tree. Home is the little white face of a dog that pops in the window as you're walking up to the door. Home are the hugs that come too frequently when coming or going with long stretches of time in between. Home is long nights with open books. Home is takeout on the stove and paper plates. Home is the newspaper being read in the kitchen. Home is Dad saying "put on some socks" and Mom saying "have you even brushed your hair?" Home is hot tea and lots of quiet. Home is running barefoot in the front yard. Home is laughter and irretrievable firsts. Home is tradition. Home is family.
Home has been on my mind so much recently since it's the holiday season. I just got back to university from Thanksgiving break and I've been missing home so much. So with the chaos of it all this week, I just wanted to wax poetic about the concept of home. Also, I came across a passage I wrote in my personal journal last year that really hit home for me (see what I did there?) that I thought I might share with you.
My home has become people and things and my inner workings. My home no longer shallowly exists as a structure. I make my home somewhere doubtlessly impermanent now. It is not some stagnate structure, prone to wear and exhaust. My home now exists in the intangible spirit, both holy and human alike. My home is an unwavering force - not somewhere with lawn and window and fence. My home is not the suburban cell, but the boundless spirit, the people and the things that surround me and my own good temperament. So, as I pack I know that these things aren't going 'home' and that I am not going 'home.' I exist at my true home at all times. Take away the structure, the pleasant thoughts of security and permanence - I don't give a damn anymore.
So tell me - what's "home" to you? Is it a feeling or a thing or a person? What is your concept/ideology of home? Let me know! P.S. - Wowza! It's already December!
5 comments
Such a good and relevant question for young people because when we're in college, the term home can be confusing. I have a friend who considers her campus home, but the terms can really be interchangeable. For now, I would say my home is the place I grew up in.
ReplyDeleteExactly! Since I've started college, the term "home" has felt like it has a had a revolving door of meanings and places. Home is the intangible within myself, my apartment that I worked so deliriously hard to find, the dorm room I shared with 3 other girls and the sorority house I shared with 96 other girls. Home is in feelings and memories and people. Home can be so many things I love that. Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDelete"Home is a full fridge & full pantry." Haha. So true. Home has changed since I went to university. Home is where you feel comfortable & welcome. :] // ▲ itsCarmen.com ▲
ReplyDelete"home is where you get food for free" it kind of explains it all for me.
ReplyDeleteAh home is totally all those things you listed. I remember going home and just feeling like I was where I belong. Now I have a new home with my fiance and I guess what makes it ours is that it has out memories in every inch of the house, from pictures on the walls to the paint colours we chose and slaved over.
ReplyDeleteI value each and every comment. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to leave one!