Coming Home

Re-entry September 22 2009

Reflections:


Home again. It’s good to see friends and animal companions. It’s also hard to get my head back into a southern rhythm and to fully inhabit my own life again. It was so wonderful to be with friends. My life on my own is still lonely – even more so with the kids not yet back from their trip. It takes a long time to re-invent a life and repopulate it with close friends. I feel a bit as if I’ve been space traveling, and have now landed again on my home planet.



One interesting aspect of being away from home for a while, visiting many other homes, is to see my own living space as if for the first time, as it were. On this trip. I have found it fascinating how people’s homes reflect who they are and what’s going on with them at a given moment.



Homes September 22 2009

I’m home again, after staying in several people’s homes while on my trip.

Homes today are often storage bins and staging areas.

Everyone’s got stuff that narrates their life story.

Some houses bulged with souvenirs –

Little items saved from this event or that voyage.

Those people live cocooned in memories.

Another house had nothing anywhere:

Only stark modern furniture. It looked like a museum where no one lived.

They clearly spend a lot of time outside their home.

Appearance there beats comfort and relaxing.

Others saved things just in case – things without inherent value, that could be just what’s needed –

Soothing constant fear of lack. .

Still others have been overwhelmed by stuff that’s coming in, so that stacks and piles,

Boxes, cases, bags and folders cover every horizontal inch of floor and table --- chest-high.

Some homes were perfectly maintained, and others had their stains and tatters.



We get used to the environment we make, and live within, unconsciously.

Now, seeing my home again after being gone, I’m pondering what it says of me –

My attachments, my occupations, my fears, my sense of order, my ability to keep abreast.

I’ve chosen how and where I’ll live, and now I see anew what I've created. Do I approve?