As someone who travels alot, i wonder about the concept of home.
What does home mean to you?
I too have travelled a lot, lived in a lot of different place & countries and had an abusive home life as a child so 'home' doesn't mean the same thing to me as it might to others. I think of hearth more often as it contains 'heart' and the saying is that 'home is where the hearth is' so; I think its 'me ' I am my own home because of my past experiences ;I don't want to give my centre to anybody but myself.
A place you feel is worth investing your time, energy and finances.. I’ve recently made a major move, to me at least. And as content as I am with where I’ve landed ..I can’t help but stare dreamy eyed at other nooks & crannies of the region.. Thinking, damn - too bad we only get one go at life!
No longer where i came from … that may always feel like home.. But the more time, experience and friends I make away, the more ‘this’ feels like home. So much is in our heads…
"Home" is more fungible and flexible a concept than it once was. My wife and I are 100% telecommutes, so we had the luxury of choosing to live anywhere (at least in the continental US anyway) without any likely work-related constraints, so when we became empty nesters, we simply chose our current residential arrangements based entirely on where we wanted to live. It was kind of weird explaining that to people once we were here, as most people are here either because of some connection with the main employer in this town, or to family. Eventually to avoid lengthy explanations we just lied and said we moved here for family, and that satisfied people. For a time it actually became true, as my son joined us here before he died.
If my wife and stepson were somehow not in the equation, I might very well spend long periods of time in other parts of the world where I'm curious what it's like to live (and where some psychological distance from living in the Trumpish hellscape that 'Murica has become, seems less immediate and sullying). Places like Oslo, Reykjavic, and Christchurch might see me six months at a time, with my present locale as a "home base". Although that's probably easier in between my ears than in reality.
These days I think home is where various forms of intertia keep you. That inertia might be traditional inertia, like extended family or conventional employment, or simple familiarity; or it might just be the simplicity of not having to Make Arrangements of any kind.
Really interesting especially the idea of inertia, makes a lot of sense.
I wonder if the sad loss of your son in that place then ties you a bit more?
@Guttermoss Not really. He was here for a couple of years but was 30 when he passed so there was 28 years of shared history in other places, too. There's a lot of good memories in a lot of places to hold on to.
Privacy, ownership if only momentary. Family/pets if applicable. An anchor. A mortgage and responsibilities too. This changes a lot depending on whether or not I'm currently living in a tent.
Where I can totally be myself........close the door, kick off my shoes and be free to literally do as I please!
Easy: home is where my bed is.
Is that your specific bed or any bed that you would sleep on e.g. a hotel bed?
@Guttermoss my specific bed. The mountain of pillows, the rumpled sheets, the lumps of chihuahuas hiding in the blanket. I did two years of hitchhiking all around Europe and North Africa. Slept on the ground, in my sleeping bag. A young girl's game!
I find hotel rooms designed to make me want to hurry home as soon as possuble.
@Spinliesel sounds Great, especially the Chihuahuas ?
@Guttermoss They are tiny bed hogs, using up more blanket than you would believe.
Home , a comfortable , safe place , where I keep my stuff , that I'm happy to get back to , because I can be me here .
Somewhere you feel you can be completely relaxed as yourself?
@Guttermoss Yeah !