Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You'll find what you need to furnish it - memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.
- Tad Williams -
The word home means different things to us all and I guess some feel more connected to their concept of home than others; I think what's common to all is that we all have one, only the location differs.
For me, I'm home when I close the door behind me, which means I can make any place my home - I guess it's a little like the Tad Williams quote above for me and I'm ok with it. I have a first home of course, the place I was born and grew up in, a small rural town in Australia - I even feel emotionally beholden to it - but my life is where I go and so home needs to be also.
I think the only place I don't feel truly at home is when I'm away from my partner. Sure, the location is a place I sleep, somewhere I can close the door behind me a place to live and be comfortable and mostly content, but home isn't bricks and mortar to me, home is thoughts and feelings, emotions, shared love and connection, my cat, the comfortable scents and sounds and the look of her eyes upon me when I catch her looking - I try to avoid those eyes when I'm in trouble, but thankfully that's not too often. Home is something that I will defend to my last breath because it's a concept that is incredibly important to me.
They say a person's home is his or her castle and I tend to agree; I just feel that the location of that castle can be somewhat transient as home sort of follows the person.
Take someone who has left their home country for another for whatever reason. They may use the word home in respect of their country of origin as would I, but their home is where they are presently and I believe that's how it should be - in that way, a person gets to feel comfortable wherever they go. This doesn't mean their home of origin loses value or relevance, just that they have settled into a new one for a time...like a hermit crab I suppose.
I wonder if your home is your castle or if your emotional feelings of home are left back in time in some location you no longer reside in, like a home town or city. Feel free to comment if you like, tell me about what makes home for you and why, tell me about a home you miss and would like to return to, tell me about a place you currently live that does not feel like home. Whatever you like I suppose, just comment if you're inclined to.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
Image(s) in this post are my own - Dunster Castle, UK