They say home is where your heart is the same way they say money can’t buy you happiness.
I’d say that’s only part of how we understand both home and money.
While billionaires compound their greed with greed, abusing power, killing the planet, and seeming to never let enough be enough, there are people who a few extra dollars a month could make the difference in being fed or not, getting educational support or not, or paying for the electricity or not.
Where one finds no happiness in the endless void of more, the other could find room for more peace and security which may allow for a deep sense of happiness to emerge.
I feel the same way about a sense of home.
While there is richness in feeling warm and held in spaces and places that hold our hearts, it can be difficult to separate the sense of home from a carefully curated collection of items and spaces that feel like they hold me back.
The idea that home is anywhere, with anyone, is so admirable. I live in awe of the nomad, the backpackers, and the minimalists.
Finding home in the simplicity of it all.
Maybe it’s the Earth sign in me, but a “home” away from my home only sustains me for up to two weeks, and then, like clockwork, or a beacon calling me back, I begin to lose my sense of self, my sense of security.
After years of trial and error. Traveling, changing lifestyles, acquiring more and acquiring less, I’ve finally started to grasp what “home is where the heart is” means to me.
Home is a place filled with deep intention, not overconsumption.
Home is unique to me and tells the story of all the years I have lived.
Home is access to the hobbies and homemaking that warm my spirit and my soul.
It’s not about whether my house has wheels on it or not. Whether I have a roommate or not, or even whether I’m confined to one room worth of space or not.
It’s about the few deeply meaningful pieces of art that follow me everywhere I go, the letters from loved ones that get taped up on the door, and the ability to make bread for my friends and neighbors.
A place that can be cleansed, stewarded, and appreciated.
Like the house witch, tending the home like a warm hearth.
I welcome myself home each time I pull out the boxes and gently unpack it all. Finding the perfect spot for what I crave to see each day when I wake and each night when I go to sleep.
& after weeks of being far from those things, I’m finally feeling like I’m home again; finding my heart again.
More on that coming soon.
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