Home. It sounds like a simple word to define. But it’s a word that has layers and layers of meanings.
For many migrants, third culture kids, parachute families, expats, travellers, interracial couples, refugees, asylum seekers, Asian Australians, Asian Americans, African communities, Indian diaporas and really anyone who has moved around or hangs around different cultural groups, home can be hard to define. Home can be more than one place.
There’s always a personal connection to home and each of us understands home differently. What is ‘home’ to someone may not be ‘home’ to someone else.
All my life, home has been ambiguous to me. Relocating numerous times around Australia, Singapore and Malaysia as a kid, it felt like I never stayed in a place long enough to feel a sense of connection with anything and anyone around me. Whenever I felt settled in one place, it was time to pack up, say goodbyes and move again. Growing up I felt every bit the oddball in search of someplace to feel at ‘home’, and the meaning of home.
Home is about the both the tangible and intangible. The Oxford Dictionary defines home as the place where one lives permanently. Audience reception researcher David Morley argues that the home and homeland may not necessarily be a physical place. Philosopher Vincent Decombes proposes home is when one is at ease with the people whom they share their lives with. According to cultural theorist Stuart Hall, for many migrants and descendants of migrants, there is no going ‘home’.
Home. It’s a place as much as it’s a space as much as it’s a feeling. It’s an evolving space of relations and emotions. There are many ways we can think of home:
1. Place
Home is about geography and location, that place where we spent considerable time and perhaps keep returning to. It could be a house or ‘hometown’ where we grew up. The place where we were born. That college dorm. That house we’re living in right now. According to environmental psychologist Susan Clayton, an individual’s house is part of their self-definition; personalisation happens behind the front door. What makes a place feels like home compared to anywhere else is the familiar and what’s within it that speaks to us: the furniture that reflects our style, that path leading home that we can count on, all kinds of familiar surroundings.
For many on the move, it’s not uncommon to feel a sense of ‘in-betweeness’ in the midst of passing through different places. Throughout my time living in Singapore, I was constantly surrounded everywhere by chatter in Chinese, which I never fully understood. For most part I felt out of place, but my classmates were always kind enough to speak some English to make me feel included. This didn’t stop me from knowing my way around Singapore fairly well, though, hanging out at coffee shops and malls that tickled my fancy to pass the time.
2. Spatial mindset
More broadly speaking, a home may be a place that we connect with and touches the deepest sentiments within. Or it can be a mindset where we feel most at ease. It could be a quiet, reflective walk by the beach. Celebrating a birthday in a foreign part of the world, feeling empowered. Eating yummy dumplings in Chinatown that leaves us hankering for more because they taste so much like the ones we ate a long time ago.
As such, a home is a space where we feel physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually content. As behavioural scientist Winnifred Gallagher wrote, feeling at home ‘comes from an intimate relationship between us and our most personal place’.
3. Control
Home is that space where we feel things are certain and in control, things as we want them to be, emotions in check. Drawing on his study on the homeless and those sleeping rough, social researcher Cameron Parsell argues home is a desired way of living. Similarly, research scientist Maria Vittoria Guiliani argues the feeling of home stems from having some ability to exercise control in a space.
When a space is in our control, we feel we can do what we want, when we want without watching our back. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and their opinion is not what I have to agree and live with.
4. A plethora of relationships
Sometimes in a given arena, those around us makes us feel most at ease, most happy, most content, most like ourselves. It could be those who have got our back even when we are being ridiculous. Those who pump us up with false positivity when we are down. Someone whom we call our partner in crime.
As philosopher Ágnes Heller said, going home means going to ‘where we feel safe and where our emotional relationships are at the most intense’. Many migrants experience what post-colonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha calls the ‘third space’, a space where one assumes hybrid identities (emergence of new identities amidst personal cultural conflicts) in order to both assimilate in the ‘new’ land and connect with the ‘homeland’ – identities stemming from a flux of connections over time.
5. Memories
Home is what we used to know, where we were previously. Home is a temporal construct, what has been, what we have left behind and what will never be once again – only to be relived in our minds. In general for some of us that could be the wild pub crawl nights during our university days. That relationship that seemed so perfect but was not meant to be.
Historian Benedict Anderson coined the term ‘imagined communities’ which suggests members share a mutual connection though they might not be geographically close. For many global citizens, remembering the past in the present through the subtlest of ways is a means to relive nostalgic times – one never truly getting over ‘homesickness’ so to speak.
These days eating sub-par dim sum occasionally in Chinatown here in Australia reminds me of the times in Malaysia where I ate much better dim sum practically every week at roadside restaurants and loved it. These days the occasional 30’C day in Melbourne transports me back to the endless humid days in Singapore where I cooled off with iced sugarcane juice and tropical breezes blowing all round.
* * *
Comfort. Security. Warmth. Refuge. Togetherness. Solitude. Relaxed. Peace. Belonging. Acceptance. Love. These are typical words and feelings we come to think of when we speak of home.
Not all of us will feel like we have some place or space to call home. Not all of us will feel at home all the time. A questionnaire commissioned by the BBC found social classes (e.g. established working class, mobile middle class, emerging affluent class, middle class which is what most Australians identify with) exists today, and hence cultural divisions too. For those of us on the move or are part of a minority in a given place, it can be hard to feel settled especially when we feel culturally out of place.
Home. It’s about finding a connection with a place as much as it’s about belonging and feeling accepted in that space.
‘Going home’ after a day at work is one thing. ‘Feeling home’ is another thing altogether.
Living in Australia, aside from the racist remarks I mentioned earlier, many like to ask me out of curiosity, ‘Where are you from?’. It’s a question I’d rather not hear and don’t have an honest answer to. It’s a question that makes me pause and think about where I fit in, bringing to mind culturally out-of-place instances like I’ve described earlier, reminding me how so often I feel too Asian to be Australian, too Australian to be Asian.
Is a place and space a home when you feel a part of it but others around you think you shouldn’t be a part of it? It can be. In line with acceptance, home is about wanting to see yourself in others, and wanting others to see themselves in you.
For migrants, expats and anyone who feels ‘in-between’, at times we need to assimilate to feel more settled. That can involve assuming a new identity like speaking another language or eating foreign food or even changing your name. In the process of settling in and calling somewhere a home, it’s not something we might feel comfortable with and we might feel like we’re playing pretend. And so there can be the eternal struggle to feel settled. As I wrote in a previous post, there’s no such thing as the perfect home:
‘Home is like a jigsaw puzzle that you can’t put together because you don’t have all the pieces. “Home” is the world and the world is our oyster.’
Home. It’s about where we are going, dreaming moving towards something, someplace, someone, while enjoying the now, enjoying what and who we’ve got.
It’s an arena where we can fall back on and remind ourselves that simplicity is what matters.
What does ‘home’ mean to you?
This piece makes one think.👍💙
For me, home now is wherever my family is together. Even from that home, I need a little retreat – the solitude AAthatnd silence that keeps me in touch with my deepest thoughts and lets me recollect.
Funny, the place I used to call home, the place I am from, somehow felt strange to me the last time I visited with my family. It changed. I changed. My concept of home changed.
Happy new year, Mabel. 😊
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‘It changed. I changed.’ Such profound words, Imelda. Indeed a place can feel different to us though we have always loved it. It’s great that your family makes you feel at home, and hope they don’t get in your way too often 😛 Happy New Year and wishing you well for the year ahead 🙂
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This post is amazing food for thought. As a child, I felt that I didn’t fit in for different reasons and couldn’t wait to get away from my hometown. But ‘not fitting in’ was a HUGE blessing in the end. It shaped me and got me traveling to places / with people that felt more like home. Fast forward to 55 years, where I’ve learned love myself and to feel at home in my own skin. Now I define home as ‘anywhere the anchor drops’. The downside is that I am in a perpetual state of homesickness for the many people and places I have left in my wake.
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I am sorry to hear that you never fit in while growing up, Lisa. You have such a contagious personality that you seem hard to be liked. But good that it shaped you to be who you are and today, the ocean and world is your home. Sail on and Team Wobbles is cheering you every step of the way. At the rate and adventures you are going, Mr Wobbles thinks you will set some kind of world record 🙊 ✌
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This is a wonderful post Mabel. I love your interpretation of home on various points. To me home is about feeling comfortable and not just a confined space where you live, sleep and eat. While I never had an opportunity to live in another city for extended time but I have stayed in many cities for months. That did give me perspective. Of being able to compare two different cities and arrive at conclusion on various points
I love these pictures which you thoughtfully collated. In fact, I love your pictures a lot, Mabel. I like the perspective and wide angle view. Thanks for posting this write up on home which most of us don’t even think about and stirring up a thought.
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It is a very thoughtful interpretation of home you got there, Arv. Lucky you have managed to travel for a bit to experience some place different, and often it is these mobility experiences that will make you realise what you’re comfortable with. Jaipur looks like such a colourful home 🙂 So true we don’t usually think much about the idea of home…and a lot of the time we take ‘home’ for granted.
Thank you so much for your kind words on my photos. Shooting landscape and wide angle is what I really like taking images of, and maybe this will continue this year 🙂
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Great Mabel, that means we will continue to see some great pictures this year too! May be someday your idea of home will change? We don’t know what life throws us with…everything is uncertain. Keep sharing such great ost, Mabel 🙂
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Hopefully I get inspired to do photography this year. Maybe home will change for me some day. You are so right in saying that every thing is uncertain. Don’t know what will happen or who you will meet or where you will go tomorrow or anytime ahead. You too keep sharing great posts of Jaipur, Arv. I’ve learnt so much about your home city from following you 🙂
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Mabel, I’m positive on future. Thanks for reading my posts. I appreciate your visit and sharing your views. And I learn so much about your world too. 😃
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You are very kind, Arv. Wishing you all the best for 2018. More blogs from you so I can learn from you 😂
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Ha ha! Thanks, Mabel! Learn from me? wow! I was trying to learn somethings from you, instead! 😉
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Most definitely can learn from you, Arv. Your world is so different than mine 🙂
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That it is, Mabel. 🙂
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😊
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What a beautiful reflection on a word we use all the time: home. I was moved a round a lot as a young child. I hated the neighborhood where my family settled when I was nine. So, I had conflicting feelings about “home.” I do feel that my current residence is truly a home: I chose it.
On another note, I am in love with that dumpling. You really gave it pride of place in that bowl!
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Thank you so much, Linda. You are very kind with your words. So lovely to hear you are happy with where you are living right now and may it be home for a long time coming for you.
I also love that dumpling shot. The light and shadows were falling very nicely over it 🙂
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Hey Mabel….it is soooo good to be back in blogsville and especially here on your site! This is a great post, makes you think. Of course, I’m lazy and hate to think, but still. It’s kind of odd for me to think about “home” because I’ve never felt at home. Home for me, I guess, is where ever I am. I’m for some reason, simply not attached to a place, or (perhaps sadly) people. I love people, but I don’t seem to have an issue with leaving and moving on. happy new year 2018!!
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Heyyy Badfish! Always love it when you lurk around! Good to know you are comfortable wherever you are…you just put up with what you’ve got and roll with it. Trust me, it’s hard having to leave people…or people leave you. Sometimes maybe it’s best to not get too attached…or maybe just try it 😀 Happy New Year and wishing you more safe and adventurous travels this year!!!
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Happy New Year to you, too, Mabel.
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You too. Best wishes Badfish. Keep traveling!
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Another great post and one which has brought back memories of my original home in England. My mom was always looking to better our lot, so as soon as we had enough money to move to a nicer and more upmarket area, that’s what we did. This meant that I left most of my friends behind when I was a teenager. We didn’t have a home phone, so I totally lost contact. When I went to college in a different city at seventeen, I made a few new friends, but after my studies, I got married and moved to another town. Not long after that hubby and I decided to emigrate to South Africa, starting out in a town east of Johannesburg. When we could afford to buy our own house, we moved south of the city and then to a bigger house north of the city, finishing up in an even bigger house closer to the city. Here was where we lived and worked and made friends for about fifteen years, before retiring down to the coast, leaving those friends behind of course. We now live in the USA and have had to make all new friends. I have come to think of this as home, although when we travel back to South Africa, it still feels as though I’m going home’ for a while. Naturally, we’ve had to contend with the different cultures as we’ve changed countries, but somehow have always managed to make friends and fit in. I’m so sorry that you’ve had to deal with so much racism on your life’s journey. Having moved around so much, I’ve learned to accept people for who they are, and not for how they fit into the ‘accepted’ colour or culture scheme. We are all human beings with similar hopes and aspirations and should always treat others with kindness and respect. If we do this, we can feel at home wherever we happen to find ourselves. Happy New Year, Mabel. xx
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This was such a lovely comment to read, Sylvia, and thank you for sharing your home(s) and where you’ve been. It sounds like you’ve moved a lot and adapted whenever you had to. Sorry to hear you weren’t able to keep in touch with your school and college friends, but hope you still do with some of them whom you met in South Africa. These days with Facebook and all of social media, you never know who you can track down and reconnect with again.
True. Racism has been a part of my life, and it’s something I will probably I will have to put up with. It does sound like you didn’t experience it much and have a great appreciation for different cultures. From your blog, it is also lovely to read about you and your backyard flying and water friends – they seem like one big family and home 🙂 ‘We are all human beings with similar hopes and aspirations and should always treat others with kindness and respect.’ You said it and I can’t say it better.
Happy New Year and wishing you the very best for the year ahead ❤
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Very nice blog 👌💞
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Thank you, Parnika 🙂
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This posts resonates with what I’ve been feeling for a long time now, both as a traveller and expat. I think home is a place where I feel peace. It’s where I can be me. By that definition, home can be anywhere in the world. 🙂 Happy 2018, Mabel!
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Home is peace. I like that. With peace comes being comfortable. Happy travels for the year ahead, Cheryl (and Basil). Make the world your home 🙂
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A very thought-provoking post, Mabel. For me, home is the actual building that I currently live in. We only moved into this house just under two years ago, but it’s what I call home. Why? Because, as you mentioned in your post, it’s the place where I feel most comfortable and most loved in. However, I don’t consider the city I now live to be my home. Probably because too many other people live here and we can’t all possibly call it home, can we? Then again, maybe those that were born in this city can call it home?
I could ask many other questions about what ‘home’ means to us, but that’s because your post was so thought-proking.
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You are the first person to openly say that the building they live in is your home. A house and not a city a home – fascinating and it is what it is to you. I can relate. Sometimes I go out into the city and there are waves of people, and because I don’t deal well with crowds, it’s hard to call that moment home. Maybe that’s the way with you too – and maybe you find it hard to relate with some things about your city.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Hugh. It really is very kind of you.
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Yes, I’m the same in that I don’t like crowds, Mabel. I can understand why somebody who lives in the same town or city as they were born would call it home, but that’s not the case for me. I was born in a town I never lived in. Even when I revisit it, it does not feel like home. I guess because I’ve never lived there. However, I wouldn’t call places where I have lived before, home. They are more like parts of my life. Home for me is definitely the building that I now live in.
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‘They are more like parts of my life. ‘ I like this saying a lot. Sometimes we simply pass through places…and that’s about it. No connection, just passing by. Hope you make many fond memories in the building you live in this year 🙂
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Hi Mabel, You’ve got me thinking, which happens with all your thought-provoking posts. Although I’ve moved and made new homes many times in my life, memories of my childhood home are the most indelible even though I’ve spent an equal amount of time in other homes. I guess I feel lucky to have lived in different places and experienced making new friendships, however, there isn’t an equivalent for those lifelong friendships- I guess they would be my definition of home.
Wishing you a year ahead full of inspiration, adventures and creativity! Thank you for your terrific posts.
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It does sound like you have been on the move quite a bit when you were younger. That is so true – there is no substitute for lifelong friendships and true friends. They will make you feel great wherever you are. Hope you have a great group of friends to get you through thick and thin.
You are very kind with your words, Jane. Thank you so much.
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This is a great analysis! “Home” has always been ambiguous for me too. I grew up living in many houses in my hometown, each of them feeling like “home” when I live there. At 16, I moved across the country for school, first living in a dorm and then having my own apartment. It was a rented space, but the first where I could live alone and truly be myself. In my mind, that feeling of “where I can be myself” has always been my personal definition of home. Now, living in a country literally on the other side of the world from where I was born, I have assumed new identities – “hybrid” identities which feel more real to me than any one specific label. I frequently feel I fit no labels, so when I am forced to act like one when traveling back to my hometown, it doesn’t feel like home anymore. And yet the memories and connections I share with all the people there, both good and bad, make it home nonetheless with all its complications and intricacies. 🙂
Thank you for writing another such well thought-out post! It triggered many emotions and thoughts within me.
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It is interesting to hear you associate being somewhere alone as being yourself. As an introvert, I feel you. Having your own space, you learn what you like and set yourself up how you like it. It is refreshing to hear you openly admit that you don’t fit any labels, but go along with some of them momentarily because well, somehow they are a part of your culture.
Thank you for taking the time to reflect and may home be wherever your heart is 🙂
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Hi Mabel, Loved the way you have dissected and analysed the connotation of ‘home’ in detail. I found myself in agreement with each point that you have listed. The feel of a home is about having a deep connection with the location, associating a sense of contentment and also the feeling of having things in control. It is a place where there is a social fabric comprising of relations and friends that one can count on and the place with which one associates memories of a major portion of life. So yes, our home is a part of a person’s identity and I like how you sum it up to say that it is about finding a connection with a place as much as it’s about belonging and feeling accepted in that space.
Though I have not faced this dilemma, now I understand when you talk about ‘in-between’, feeling and the need to assimilate to feel more settled.
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There are so many perspectives to home. You are right in saying that it’s linked to our identity, and that it’s something where are and what we feel. These days deep connections can be hard to make since a lot of us move around and travel so much, and people also come and go with our lives – and with social media, sometimes you don’t know what and who to believe anymore. I do think home strikes us when we least expect it, and we might realise it when it is gone or when we move on to something else. It is nice to hear you know where home is, Somali. I do hope that place and space where you are feels like home for a long time to come ❤
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Mabel, this was a really interesting study and essay on the meaning of home, and definitely made me reconsider what my own thoughts are on it. Like you, I moved a lot as a kid. For my family, it wasn’t to new countries, but new states and cities, so much so that I didn’t have any friends for longer than a couple years. I think, for a long time, I struggled with not having a “hometown” or deep enough connections to people to attend things like reunions. If I were to really consider it, I think what you wrote summarizes my feelings best: “Home is what we used to know, where we were previously. Home is a temporal construct, what has been, what we have left behind and what will never be once again.”
I’ve sometimes fantasized going backwards, or trying to recapture what I’ve lost from certain places, but I know even if I went back physically, it would never be the same again.
Great piece.
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It sounded like moving was hard for you. Even moving from city to city and state to state can be a whole new experience. Like you, I also don’t get it why people attend reunions…I never feel connected enough to go to one of them. Going backwards is sometimes possible – think visiting a certain place. But you are right in that places are never the same, they change just as much as people change.
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Can we have more than just one home? I feel like I have two homes nowadays and each travel, I get even more inspired in finding a new home. I do like one of the descriptions as mentioned by you, that a home is about the connection with a place as much as it’s about belonging and feeling accepted in that space. But sometimes a place grows on us too, regardless how ugly the place is, people could just accept it as their home. Well written post, Mabel..the most important thing to me to feel secure and stay inspired whenever I am home.. ❤
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Haha, you can certainly have more than one home if you feel that way! It is so true that a place can grow on you, just like how some people can grow on you and you put up with them. If it makes you safe and secure, it’s a good place to be in and no reason why it can’t be called home ❤
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Your writings are always very enjoyable to read. It’s tough changing locations especially as a child.
Somehow we manage but we always feel a sense of loss; yet, don’t know why. I decided when I got married I’d start my own family traditions. I used the memories I loved most to cerate my own traditions. It helped me a great deal. Thanks for having such insight into your journey.
Belated Happy 2018 New Year Wishes
Isadora 😎
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I think you are right in that there will always be a sense of loss when we’re moving on to another place or space that we want to. So interesting to hear you built on the past to create your family traditions and hope they are meaningful traditions for a long time to come. Best wishes to you too 🙂
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Home can definitely be more than one place, Mabel. This post was a great read. In my opinion, home is where your heart is. 😉
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Home can definitely be where the heart is. Home is where we feel most comfortable anywhere 🙂
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I can relate to your every definition of “home”, Mabel. It’s truly a word with numerous layers and we sometimes don’t even understand what triggers the feeling of “being at home” even when we are away from our usual one. It may be a smell, of a typical mom-made dish, or a particular style of architecture or a piece of furniture, we never know. I also think that wherever we stay for a considerable period of time, we leave some ‘home emotions’ there. Because, at the end of the day, it’s the person we are, our existence and personality that create the ‘home’. 🙂
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Indeed. Home is about layers. I think you are right when you say we leave ‘home emotions’ some place where we spend some time, Mani. After all, we often try to settle down and feel comfortable, each to our own ways. So sometimes when we leave some place, we feel like we are taking away a part of that place with us…and that is home 🙂
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That’s exactly what I meant. Life is like a jigsaw puzzle and we leave a piece where we spend some time… 🙂
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‘we leave a piece where we spend some time’ Oooh. What a great line from you, a great continuation. Amazing 🙂
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I’m putting a link to your “Home” post in my blog this week – thanks for your exploration on the subject. It’s something I’m still thinking of since moving out and putting my stuff I storage.
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Thank you so much for the link and shout out, Sandy. Maybe one day you will break down what home means to you. Lovely to get a glimpse of where home is for you 🙂
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I recently faced the option of moving away. Your post resonated me. I put it on my Pinterest. I love this quote – Home. It’s a place as much as it’s a space thank you.
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Hope you figure out where you want to be, Lita. Thank you so much for sharing. That is very kind of you 🙂
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Liebe Mabel das sind ja wunderschöne Fotos da kommt gleich Fernweh auf hab ein schönen sonnigen Sonntag hier in Köln ist es am schneien und regnen grausiges Wetter sei ganz lieb gegrüßt Klaus in Freundschaft
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Very nice of you to say my photos are lovely, Klaus. Big hello right back at you. Hopefully you get some sunny and warm weather soon. Spring is almost here for you 🙂
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Ja liebe Mabel das hoffe ich auch in Freundschaft Klaus
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I THOUGHT I commented on this already…Anyway, since college, I’ve always had two homes — the one I go to after work on weekdays, and the one I grew up in, where my family were/are. I am not a well-traveled person at all.
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Haha, so nice of you to pop round again! Well-traveled is a matter of perspective. Travel comes in many different forms, and life experiences can certainly be forms of travel 😀
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Then I’ve had more bad traveling experiences than necessary…LOL!!!
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A bad travel experience always means a story to tell 😀
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I’m tired of telling bad life-travel stories. 😉
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Home is where I can walk around in my PJs and have a lie down on my bed as and when I what too. Home is where it takes only a few steps to unwind and rejuvenate (a place for a good sleep). Home is where I can be what I want to be without any one being judgemental of my appearance. In a nutshell, home is a personal heaven on earth.
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I have to agree with your sentiments here. Being in your PJs, lying down and around and relaxing…that is such a great state to be in. That is usually when we feel most at peace and comfortable just being ourselves 🙂
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I have two homes: a temporary home in the city I currently live in (but it takes a good year to recognise a new city as home) and my home anchor, the small city I grew up in. Ultimately “going home” for me still deep down means going to my parents house.
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Lovely to hear you connect with two homes. It can take time to call a place home…but when you have found that feeling of home, it can be hard to let go of.
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Hi Mabel, I just stumbled across your blog and have spent (OMG, my boss will kill me!!) most of today reading about your thoughts, life, and stuffed monkeys. It’s fascinating reading – you are quite a gifted writer. Thank-you so much for sharing.
My ‘home’ is a quiet little place in the mountains, a few hours drive from the city. Although I went to school and Uni in Melbourne, and have spent most of my adult life living and working here, the mountains keep pulling me back. During the past few years, I’ve lived and worked in a few other cities, in Australia and abroad. During this time, my childhood friends and neighbours in the mountains have moved away, the old house has burned down and been rebuilt, and my parents moved to the city. Going ‘home’ now isn’t a return to people or things, there are no old toys, photos or buildings. Not even a family or a house. My wife and I feel a very strong connection to the land, to the mountains. We have walked, camped, hunted, made love, drank and slept on every peak within cooee of where the old house was. We don’t understand what it is, but it keeps pulling us back. We’ll go back for the coming Easter holiday. And probably the following weekend as well…
Thank-you Mabel for your writing, for your sharing, for helping me remember and for being you in a world that can be difficult. Please keep writing 加油 !
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It does sound like you have an affinity for the mountains, Johnno. True, for some of us like you home might never be the same in terms of geographica and physical boundaries, but it evolves over time a feeling within us. It sounds like every time you go back to the mountains you find some inner peace and feel that you can just be you. Maybe there is nothing to understand about why we are compelled to go back to a certain place or someone or both – it just feels right and that is where we are meant to be, meant to feel most at peace. You mentioned you worked in other cities in Australia and abroad. They are probably very different experiences compared to the mountains…and maybe, just maybe, they offer a vague insight as to why you feel the pull of the mountains 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind words, and for reading about the stuffed monkeys too. I might write about them again at some point. Hope you travel safe and have a wonderful holiday, and enjoy the hills.
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Thanks for your reply Mabel. Yes, you’re right (again), travelling always puts a different perspective on things we often take for granted. Working in China for 4 months last year was a wonderful experience, but also gave me a greater appreciation of the peace that, for me, only nature and connection with the land can bring.
Most of my Chinese friends, regardless of which country they were born in or live in now, have never left the confines of a city. They might come from China to study/work/live in Melbourne, but they always stay within the safety of the city. They feel most at home in Box Hill or Little Bourke St. I hope you have found a chance to expand your idea of Australia well beyond what can be seen from the Sky Deck.
I’ll think of you this weekend, as I watch the sunrise from a mountain top near ‘home’.
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Working abroad and really traveling you learn to experience different lifestyles, and that is so enriching.
Quite a few of my Chinese friends and friends of Asian descent who also call Box Hill a second home, or Glen Waverley. They do give you the feeling that Melbourne is so diverse – and how that’s part of so many of our ‘homes’ these days.
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