Define “home”.
I haven’t blogged much since returning from America, for a number of reasons. But inspired by someone else, I’m resuming positive and somewhat unconventional blogging soon, and have several half-done posts.
One of which concerns the concept of “Home”. It’s a concept I’ve grappled with for a while, and others I know have as well.
And I’m interested in what other people think and feel “home” is. Is it the place (house, community, country) you live in? The place you grew up in? The place your ancestors came from? The favourite place you have visited and want to visit again? The place you aspire to live in?
What is “home”, to you? Where is “home”, to you?
Home can be two places for me:
First it is the place where I live, where at that point in time most of my life takes places. This obviously means it can change several times during my life. For a time it was where my parents lived (while I grew up), but it ceased to be home when I moved out. This confused quite a few people who asked me if I was going “home” over Christmas and my answer was no, I was going to visit my parents.
Second it is a place I like/love and return to frequently, a spiritual home. When I return to the place it feels like “coming home”, returning to a place where I’m happy and where I should be.
Does the second part make any sense to anyone? I’m not sure I’m explaining that very well.
Interesting to see your entry/link on Twitter. I had the same thoughts just before Christmas… From my own post last month:
Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 9:35pm
Home: birth place. where I was raised. place of my parents.
Home: where I spent more than 14 years of my life, experienced numerous life-changing events, and the location of my “emotional homebase” (a park I hiked almost daily).
Home: where I currently reside. “As in, I’m not working. I’ll be at home.” And where a very nice group of friends is developing.
I have thought about this a lot, as I set up a new home in the past year. To me, home is my soft place to land. I like Cheryl’ definition “emotional homebase.” It is a place of warmth where I may welcome others. I love that I was able to pick precisely where I want to live and find the best possible combination of home and neighbourhood. One thing I have learned is that it isn’t necessary to own a home to make it one. My last home- a house- was never a source of comfort. I feel fortunate that my current home is a nest, and friends and family feel good here.
Thanks for provoking some thought.
you see i dont really see the western isles as my home, i see Berneray as my home. I have this bond with Berneray that is uncanny There is no were else that i would rather be. Well even though there are people here that resent me i come to think about the people who do not, and they are without a doubt the most frendliest people i have ever met.
One time i was in glasgow i went to a newsagents in burnside and i acted the same way i would to the shopkeeper in berneray and he said that i was the most freindliest person who has ever walk into his shop, and i just thought that berneray must be the most freindliest community in britain. So i guess that berneray is my home and that will never change.
nightwatcher
Oh, this is an interesting one, I’m glad that other commenters have given several definitions.
1) Where I currently live, where my possessions are, where I feel safe
2) My mum and stepdad’s house, where I lived aged 9-18.
3) My friend’s house in Stromness, Orkney, feels like it’s been a constant throughout my life and it’s a special place. Stromness in general feels like home, although I left aged 9. Wonder if I would feel the same about a less attractive place?
This is difficult for me. I was raised in Japan so there are a couple answers and they are all true for me. In essence, anyplace I hang my hat is home. I moved and lived in so many different houses growing up that I don’t have a set home, and so it really is where ever I am at the time.
Now – I certainly consider Minnesota as my home, especially the Twin Cities. It is a part of who I am. At the same time there is a part of me that considers the small town where our mission camp was up in the Mountains of Japan to be my “furusato.” Furusato is a Japanese word that means your hometown, or where your family is from – the place where your people come from. I spent many a summer up at the camp, and some winter time as well – but still that is where I think of as my “hometown.”
good question – and hopefully the answer makes some sense.
Home to me is the feeling of the PLACE where my daughter, hubby and I presently live in a little village but it could be anywhere!
In our home we are together experiencing life and all its ventures, exchanging love, thoughts and actions!
When we move our new place will become our home!
TOODLES
http://www.toodlesg.blogspot.com
I have to agree with Armin! Berneray and Uist felt very much like a spiritual “home” to me and I think of my stay there often. And it keeps me popping into this site!
But I consider myself lucky to live in a place and with people that make me feel good when I return home, to the place where I live. I know others who travel and then dread having to return. I would hate to live that way!
In the words of the song ” Wherever I lay my hat that’s my home.”
I think home in the sense that is being discussed changes with age.
As a child it is perforce where you live – usually with your parents.
Until you get married or cohabitting, it’s still ” home”.
Once you are “together” with another, where the two of you live is “Home”
As people get older and live all over the place, many return “home” to retire, back to their “roots”
I’m not sure how successfull this last is, because one’s attitudes and friendships are so utterly different at 80 than they are at 20.
Home for me is a feeling. In addition, those feelings are linked to the people that surround you. This makes it possible to have more than one home (i.e. different stages in your life).
I was fortunate enough to grow up with a great family, surrounded by the people who love me the most. However, I also had a group of friends when I went off to college that I consider my family. I felt as though I was most “at home” when I went on my own.
To wrap things up, home is a not a place for me; it is a feeling of complete confidence and happiness. Home changes over time as your priorities shift and you get to experience life for yourself.
P.S. In the movie Garden State this is a topic of discussion. Check it out if you haven’t seen it. Just throwing that out there
home, thats a concept which I understand deep in my soul, but seem unable to physically graps. I was born and brought up in a ‘nice’ part of Glasgow, my mother still lives there, when I drive up the hill coming off the motorway from travels I have an urge to get out and kiss the ground, Ive never done it, but its still there. I live not far from there, in a not very nice 1960’s tenement, with some of the most hideous neighbours imaginable. I had a nice semi once, a long time ago but it wasnt home, neither have any of the fourteen addresses I had over the last 10 years. Maybe it Kintyre, again I feel like getting out and kissing the ground when I go over the Atlantic bridge, all I know is one day I’d like to have one, as long as it isnt here.
Home to me is the Isle of Lewis where I was born. I haven’t lived there in a long time but return every year and still refer to it as home regardless of where I have lived in the past. It’s a very odd feeling and one that has taken me years to understand. The place has a “pull” that makes being away from it very difficult at times. When I am there I am home, with all the psychological peace that entails.
I think of both Scotland and America as home, but in different ways. America is the home that I love because I was born into it (like my family); Scotland is the home I love because I chose it (like my friends). Both are equally important in completely different ways.
Home is here in Lewis. Such a long time since I was living in my birth place of Bath that I feel little connection with the the old town now. Since leaving Bath I have been living in Sheffield, in and near Manchester for years. So, here is home now.
Lewis is home now – my kids were born here and are going to school here. Most of my family is here, so in a very real sense, this is home.
I *feel* at home in Edinburgh though – it’s the place I was born, the place I grew up, and the place that I feel I belong to.
I never thought of Silversprite as being ‘conventional’.
My spiritual home is Africa, where I met more nicer people than anywhere else in the world, and also many excellent librarians.