Another gentle but thought-provoking essay on the journey. I am currently in Mexico, an amazing city called Oaxaca. This is my third long stay here, and I feel at home. I know the streets, I know the rhythms, I'm sipping a cup of Jamaica and later I'll wander down the street for a tlyauda. Three weeks from now I'll return to Canada, where I'll settle into my 'home' there. My worldly goods (much reduced) are in storage, and I will be my youngest son's roomie. Sometimes I feel like a turtle, home is where I am.
Thank you so much for your comment, Diana. I especially love what you wrote here, "home is where I am" -- it almost sounds like a koan, a beautiful thought to keep returning to and meditating on.
It's also so fun to hear that you're currently calling Oaxaca home! I have long wanted to visit, and it's wonderful to get a sense of what your rhythms and rituals are there.
My sense of home is very...different right now, compared to the one I thought I knew? It used to be about specific places and things, and some of it still is - for example, the cabin I'm living in. But it's also a *route*. It's a set of relationships on a map, and a sense of virtual movements determined by the activities that make me feel like I'm alive and in the world, particularly focused on my newsletter but other stuff too...
But it's also, in theory, my 60-litre rucksack and everything I can stuff into it when I move between places. (Except, considering I've been in the same place for over two years, that's a bit deceptive - I've now accumulated maybe two or three rucksacks of stuff due to materialistic creep, and getting rid of most of it again will be a lot of yikes.)
I think what I'm finding, at the age of 52 (which is unexpected), is that when you're not sure exactly where your home is, you can have fun choosing - including in a way where you tick many or even all the available boxes, instead of just one.
Mike! I adore everything you shared here, but the thought that resonates with me the most right now is the idea of home being "a sense of virtual movements determined by the activities that make me feel like I'm alive and in the world."
You just perfectly captured why Dandelion Seeds has meant so much to me these past couple of months -- it has truly felt like a kind of homecoming after having Elena, and I love that Everything is Amazing has become a home for you too (and a rather fantastic one at that!).
Here's to home, and all the many weird and wonderful forms it can take in our lives 🙌
Yes! From our chats I know you've been feeling that, which is wonderful. And I very much feel the same way about my newsletter - it feels like, I don't know, an anchor, or a hook, that's allowed me to tether myself to the world again?
Over a lot of the last decade I felt like the world got away from me, like I lost my place in it and lost my ability to interact with it properly and make a mark on it - I was just swept past by All That Stuff Happening. But now EiA has lodged itself in the fabric of the wider world, so I can haul my way back up into it? Strange metaphor ahoy, but I think it's apt.
At some point, if one lives long enough, or strong enough, home ceases to describe an external phenomena. It becomes a way, as simple as looking, as breathing, as noticing that walls, like a shirt, are something to be shed when ever possible so as to soak up the sun, feel the breeze, be inspired by the cold and to be sobered by the night.
R. A., thank you for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and thought-provoking comment. Your words hold as much truth as they do poetry, and I'll be thinking about what you wrote here -- "Home becomes a way, as simple as looking, as breathing" -- lots in the days to come.
I grew up in the same house my whole life and it never felt right. My parents still live there. My Dad always said I was born to wonder. My parents tried to instill in me a sense of home with heirlooms, family traditions, and consistency. But, it just never felt right until I met my husband! For me home is a companion! An equal partner and someone you can team up with to accomplish all your goals.
I love that you and José found your equation of home together!
"For me home is a companion! An equal partner and someone you can team up with to accomplish all your goals." I just love how you put that, Brie, especially as it's exactly the sense of home I've found with Jose as well :) I'm so glad you share that with your husband, and I imagine it is giving your little ones such a beautiful foundation for their own sense of home. Thank you so much for sharing 🤍
Quite a while back now, when I first found your writings, you posted an entry that really resonated with me. In it you quoted Gretel Ehrlich and from that quote I was inspired to write a song. The song is called "Casting Shadows, song for Gretel". I had forgotten about where the song came from but this morning I remembered. It ties into you recent posts. The song is one that I enjoy playing, it orients me, cleans the lens thru which I see and exist in the world. I didn't know of Gretel, or her books before, so, thanks for the spark. Here's a link to the song if you are interested in listening to it.
The actual structure I am in is of first significance, for the past six years in a small manufactured home on a friend's small lavender farm with a view of the Olympics, when sky is clear enough. It is very cozy. The environment I am in; here is good with the mountains, the Strait of Juan de Fuca a few miles to the north, and weather is pretty good, a bit grey and summer can take forever to get here. So in this present time, I am blessed and grateful for all this.
Another gentle but thought-provoking essay on the journey. I am currently in Mexico, an amazing city called Oaxaca. This is my third long stay here, and I feel at home. I know the streets, I know the rhythms, I'm sipping a cup of Jamaica and later I'll wander down the street for a tlyauda. Three weeks from now I'll return to Canada, where I'll settle into my 'home' there. My worldly goods (much reduced) are in storage, and I will be my youngest son's roomie. Sometimes I feel like a turtle, home is where I am.
Thank you so much for your comment, Diana. I especially love what you wrote here, "home is where I am" -- it almost sounds like a koan, a beautiful thought to keep returning to and meditating on.
It's also so fun to hear that you're currently calling Oaxaca home! I have long wanted to visit, and it's wonderful to get a sense of what your rhythms and rituals are there.
That José chap sounds nice! #spoilers
My sense of home is very...different right now, compared to the one I thought I knew? It used to be about specific places and things, and some of it still is - for example, the cabin I'm living in. But it's also a *route*. It's a set of relationships on a map, and a sense of virtual movements determined by the activities that make me feel like I'm alive and in the world, particularly focused on my newsletter but other stuff too...
But it's also, in theory, my 60-litre rucksack and everything I can stuff into it when I move between places. (Except, considering I've been in the same place for over two years, that's a bit deceptive - I've now accumulated maybe two or three rucksacks of stuff due to materialistic creep, and getting rid of most of it again will be a lot of yikes.)
I think what I'm finding, at the age of 52 (which is unexpected), is that when you're not sure exactly where your home is, you can have fun choosing - including in a way where you tick many or even all the available boxes, instead of just one.
Mike! I adore everything you shared here, but the thought that resonates with me the most right now is the idea of home being "a sense of virtual movements determined by the activities that make me feel like I'm alive and in the world."
You just perfectly captured why Dandelion Seeds has meant so much to me these past couple of months -- it has truly felt like a kind of homecoming after having Elena, and I love that Everything is Amazing has become a home for you too (and a rather fantastic one at that!).
Here's to home, and all the many weird and wonderful forms it can take in our lives 🙌
Yes! From our chats I know you've been feeling that, which is wonderful. And I very much feel the same way about my newsletter - it feels like, I don't know, an anchor, or a hook, that's allowed me to tether myself to the world again?
Over a lot of the last decade I felt like the world got away from me, like I lost my place in it and lost my ability to interact with it properly and make a mark on it - I was just swept past by All That Stuff Happening. But now EiA has lodged itself in the fabric of the wider world, so I can haul my way back up into it? Strange metaphor ahoy, but I think it's apt.
(Home is an anchor; Home is a tap root...)
At some point, if one lives long enough, or strong enough, home ceases to describe an external phenomena. It becomes a way, as simple as looking, as breathing, as noticing that walls, like a shirt, are something to be shed when ever possible so as to soak up the sun, feel the breeze, be inspired by the cold and to be sobered by the night.
R. A., thank you for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and thought-provoking comment. Your words hold as much truth as they do poetry, and I'll be thinking about what you wrote here -- "Home becomes a way, as simple as looking, as breathing" -- lots in the days to come.
I grew up in the same house my whole life and it never felt right. My parents still live there. My Dad always said I was born to wonder. My parents tried to instill in me a sense of home with heirlooms, family traditions, and consistency. But, it just never felt right until I met my husband! For me home is a companion! An equal partner and someone you can team up with to accomplish all your goals.
I love that you and José found your equation of home together!
"For me home is a companion! An equal partner and someone you can team up with to accomplish all your goals." I just love how you put that, Brie, especially as it's exactly the sense of home I've found with Jose as well :) I'm so glad you share that with your husband, and I imagine it is giving your little ones such a beautiful foundation for their own sense of home. Thank you so much for sharing 🤍
Candace,
Quite a while back now, when I first found your writings, you posted an entry that really resonated with me. In it you quoted Gretel Ehrlich and from that quote I was inspired to write a song. The song is called "Casting Shadows, song for Gretel". I had forgotten about where the song came from but this morning I remembered. It ties into you recent posts. The song is one that I enjoy playing, it orients me, cleans the lens thru which I see and exist in the world. I didn't know of Gretel, or her books before, so, thanks for the spark. Here's a link to the song if you are interested in listening to it.
https://richardamaldonado.bandcamp.com/track/casting-shadows-a-song-for-gretel-2
Peace
The actual structure I am in is of first significance, for the past six years in a small manufactured home on a friend's small lavender farm with a view of the Olympics, when sky is clear enough. It is very cozy. The environment I am in; here is good with the mountains, the Strait of Juan de Fuca a few miles to the north, and weather is pretty good, a bit grey and summer can take forever to get here. So in this present time, I am blessed and grateful for all this.