Friday, September 11, 2009

Home


Where is home for you? 

Is it nestled in his favourite armchair, or beneath the throw rug that the two of you bought when you were newlywed? Does it sound loudly in the silly sayings that only the two of you understand? Do you hear it in the rain on your roof when you lay awake together just to listen? Do you feel it when he reaches for your hand or in the way he says your name? Are lead down the path to home every time you walk along that beach, through his park or beside your river? 

Is it a place beside a window where sunlight can hold you while you snuggle with your children? Is it seen in the scuff marks down the hallway from new leather shoes bought for the first day of school? Do you find it in the pages of your favourite book from childhood, or in the picture books your babies are now too old to read? Do you hold home in the softness of your newborn's fingers wrapped around your thumb? 

Do you hear it in the song you first danced to? In the music that made you sing when you were a teenager or in the lullabyes you hummed during those first wakeful nights?  

Is it in the yellowing photographs that take the hands of time back to when your grandmother was just a girl or your father just a boy? Is it in the scent of her perfume, in the way she brushed her hair, in the little movements her hands used to make when she talked? 

Do you find home in the garden that you planted to grow tomatoes just like you used to do when you were a little and your grandfather showed you how? Do you find home when your fingers trace the script of your great aunt's recipe for leek and potato soup? Is it there in the birthday cards from friends of all the years gone by? 

Do you taste home in your family's favourite meals or see it in the games you play on clover filled days under blue skies in the backyard? Is it in the squealing and pounding of small feet, far too early on a Saturday morning?

Is it beside him late on a Sunday night?


Where is home? 
How many people does it hold?
How many places has it known and how often do you live there?

Mine is all around me when I look when I choose to see. It is on the face of everyone I keep close. I have many little homes tucked away in all the thousands of memories that connect me to both my past and my future, but most importantly to my present.

What about you?
Where is your home?

24 comments:

  1. It's funny you should talk about home today. Hubby and I were just discussing the other day how many homes our girls seem to have. They have two barns that they feel at home in, two to three especially close friends in which they feel at home when they visit them too, and then there is there home with us and extended family homes as well. You're right, wherever you feel comfortable, treasured, is home!

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  2. Eileen, I like that your girls have so many great places that they feel at home :)

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  3. Is the text size in these comments reading really small for anyone else or is that just me?

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  4. Beautiful! Are you a poet too? You should be. Home is soft blankets, my loved ones, and walking in the front door knowing I can let out a deep breath and relax.

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  5. Hmm, good question. I guess home for me is when hubby, I and the kids are all together. That feels like home.

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  6. WOW. Are you inside my head? Home? I've been tying to figure it out.

    A feeling, I think. Something I avoid until it pounces on me and I realize how GOOD it is.

    Under the covers with my family, snoozing.

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  7. Home for me is snuggling with my kids and looking at a book or singing songs. It seems like my days can be crazy and I can forget what is important, but when I put my kids to bed I always get an overwhelming feeling that it is where I need to be--the one place I truly love.

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  8. You've captured the essence of home beautifully.

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  9. Love the picture! Home is watching TV with all the family squished on my giant bed ;)

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  10. So beautifully written.

    It's seated on the sofa, with him on the other end, watching some sort of mindless TV. That's home!

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  11. I have lots of little homes. Lately, home is in my little girls smile and in a hug. Home is when dark clouds tumble over the mountains and it starts to smell like rain. Home is always in a song as well.

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  12. Home is anywhere as long as I'm with my family.

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  13. i love this. home is where my family is, and that's been in many different locations and houses.

    jeannie
    Where Romance Meets Therapy

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  14. There is that saying 'home is where the heart is' and it's true for me. Home is where my heart rests.

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  15. So many wonderful things mean home, but the one that came to mind first was sitting at the dinner table with my husband and daughter, just as we bow our heads to say Grace.

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  16. To me, now that my oldest is married and away, the feeling of home is when the whole family is together. There is a feeling of rightness and contentment that I just love!

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  17. Home is where finger prints smudge the walls, cookie crumbs decorate the table cloth, and sloppy milk kisses bathe my cheeks!

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  18. Jody, that's magic for sure. Smudging finger prints will be all over the walls of the hallway to my heaven when I get there. Sloppy milk kisses are the diamonds of raising children :)

    Sherrinda, love that.

    Liza, mmmm... I can see that moment. Amen :)

    To true Saraha. thanks for visiting.

    Jeannie, fo sure!

    Lazy writer, me too.

    Cindy, ooh, the dark tumbling over the mountains and the smell of rain. I am so right there with you in that sentence :)

    Steph, Amen to mindless TV

    T.anne. yes the squishy sofa does wonders for the soul that needs to be home.

    thank you strange fiction.

    Natalie, my children's bed times does this for me too.

    Suzanne, yep. I know. I was crying about the little house that we bought that fell through. Then I realized I already had home, and it was good.

    Karen, yes.. the feeling in your soul :)

    Thank you jess.

    Jill, when I get confident enough I will post my poems. Thank you :) Yes, I am a prolific poet. Books and books and books of phrases that mean something to me... and maybe me alone :)

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  19. Welcome margaret. There is no link to your blog or profile when I click on your photo. I would love to visit your blog. Feel free to leave your blog address in the comments if you want. Thanks for the following :)

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  20. Home is in the heart of my husband. It's in my son's laugh, his smile, his soft skin. It's in the smell of my Bubba-dog's ears (sorry if that's gross...but I love his ears)

    And that picture tempted me to wake up my sleeping boy and snuggle with him! I resisted though.

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  21. Your kind words made me cry. Words do that for me.Thank you. I often pop into here this place, your space and others; but time not always there for me to leave a comment. But you can know I do enjoy reading you.

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  22. Lovely post. :) Home is so many things to me as well. This weekend I'm in New Orleans visiting my family so I'm reminded of where I grew up and where home started for me. Home is where you have love.

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  23. This post is priceless. Thanks for the reminder that home comprises wonderful, simple joys like this for all of us. I'm getting along with those questions and should have something to email you soon. I might add I'm really enjoying the thought you're making me take!
    Blessings,
    Paula

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