I found myself thinking about home and where home resides. And I started seeing my current home and all of it's unique assets with fresh eyes. The deep green oaks in Trinity Bellwoods Park, which have stood sentinel for more than a century, never looked more magnificent. The tiny garden patio at Red Tea Box, with its delicate pastel cabbage and filigreed gate, seemed a hidden gem only my home city could create.
Perhaps this phenomenon -- of seeing what is already all around us with fresh eyes -- is one of travel's greatest gifts. The opportunity to reflect about home, and where home resides, is perhaps another.
In "Letter To My Daughter", Maya Angelou disputes Thomas Wolfe's notion that "you can't go home again", and says: "I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and dragons of home under one's skin, at the extreme corners of one's eyes and possibly in the gristle of one's earlobe." She goes on to say: "Home is that youthful region where the child is the only real living inhabitant.....We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place that we really do."
Talking about his childhood self, bent on adventure with his dog Sam, in his wonderful poem "Running Away", Canadian poet Don McKay says:
In my viewfinder/The kid's head is a piece of empty sky, an afternoon/with high cloud moving in.....
Once again to set out/ fingers buried in his fur, to give ourselves/to serendipity and follow his exquisite nose/
through rich denatured air down/to the canal....
So here's to once again setting out, to giving ourselves to serendipity, to going inside and finding home......
Sandra ... I love this ... and in particular, love what you left us with, the concept of finding home. It's something that I have wondered about. Thich Nhat Hanh says 'every one of us needs a home'. I had the privilege of watching a great friend move from an institution to a home of her own 25 years ago. She moved from a building to another building, but she found home in the most profound way. Thich Nhat Hanh goes on to say that 'There are so many young people who are homeless. They may have a building to live in, but they are homeless in their hearts. That is why the most important practise of our time is to give everyone a home.' Here is to everyone finding home as you have wisely suggested my dear one.
ReplyDeleteThanks ever so much for this thoughtful comment. In my work with Boys and Girls Clubs, I have the privilege of seeing young people find a safe space that feels like home and supports body, mind, spirit and heart. Here's to addressing that, with open arms and hearts, everywhere.
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