09 Oct A Place Called Home

Where is our home, truly?

Is it where we live when we are born or where we came from before that?

We often preoccupy ourselves with our material home life so much that we miss the bigger picture.

Some would say,

“Let’s buy a new condo or a four bedroom home!”, or perhaps,

“Let’s build a deck and invite the family over for dinner.”

This is not to downplay the value of our material home, but we could speculate on other meanings of home.

Home can certainly be many things to many people.

Some might say home is not a place, but people that make it mean something.

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If we dig a little deeper, we could contemplate the home where we originated.

What did that home look like?

Surely our home was not simply a star in the sky.

Could it have been paradise?

Only if we dare to open our minds could we find them such a concept, or home.

Klinkenborg argued the importance of our mental perception about home,

“…our psychological habitat is shaped by what you might call the magnetic property of home, the way it aligns everything around us.”

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Another way to define a home might be to look at the pros and cons.

• Pros: people you love, beautiful home with plentiful activities, spaces, things you built, wealthy environment, being with friends and family
• Cons: interpersonal challenges, small spaces, miserly environment, being alone often, boredom, lack of activities and resources

More pros would assist us to identify with a space or home, where cons might prevent us from calling it home, despite having the greatest mansion in the world or all the material possessions one could dream of.

If that is true, then the people and experiences would make a truly identifiable home to us.

So people are a contributor, perhaps a major one, to make us feel at home; not just four walls and a ceiling.

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One final point is for all those bachelors out there who live alone.

Enjoying a good life is certainly possible while living alone.

Having a solid sense of self, self-esteem, being your own best friend or even a spiritual connection can make a great home.

I often experience the challenge of being alone, however, my strong sense of self & meditation has enabled me to overcome deep-rooted fears and find joy in studying, working and living alone for many years of my life.

Having a great home life means having a great relationship with ourselves.

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Home is a place to some of us…to others it’s people that make it important…then again it’s a personal feeling to others.

Whatever it is to each of us, it’s one of the most important things in our lives, so cherish it.

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Sources

• Verlyn Klinkenborg (May 2012), The Definition of Home, Smithsonian Magazine [Online] Available: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-definition-of-home-60692392/ [Accessed October 8 2019]