What is "Home"?

[honeypot104]

"Home is where the heart is"
"Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home"
"Home, home on the range"
"She always makes any house a home" (said by my sister about a friend)

So tell me, what is "home" for you, and how do you know when you're there?

Is it the sound of your kids laughter, the smell of your mother's cooking, the crunch of the gravel as you turn into your driveway? Is it a corner of your living room, a stand of trees, the house you grew up in, a whole damned country?

An estimated 25 million Americans will travel in the next 10 days for the Thanksgiving Holiday...are they all going "home"?

 

[only_more_so]

I wish I knew where home was. To me it is a feeling more than a place, and is something I last felt for a few years of college. Towards the end of high school I started feeling like my "home" wasn't where I belonged, that I was supposed to be somewhere else.

In college I felt at home. In the city and at school, and my fraternity house, I felt like things made sense. Since I graduated and went out into the world, I haven't felt it again. Perhaps that is why I haven't found a place I want to live (tried Texas, Virginia and now California), since none of them feel like home.

I guess I would say that home is a sentiment, a place of belonging. I don't think it has to be a cheery place or a place of warmth, but the place where your spirit is in sync with its surrounding.

 

[Ezzy]

Home is a State...

Of mind!​

 

[Munachi]

oh, i do feel that my city (berlin) is my home. not sure if it will be forever, not sure i want to always live here, but i love my city, and i feel at home here.

also, though, i feel at home at most of the different places i stay at for a while. my room, the place where i have my bed feels like home - particularly if it is a place i have to myself (rather than staying in someone else's house)... sounds too simple, but well, yes, the place where i sleep is my home, usually...

 

[carrie-on]

My Home is where I am most comfortable. My Home is where my Husband,my Lover,my Best Friend is. My Home is right here where I am now!

 

[Perfect_Trust]

For me...

Home is where I can do what I like, when I like.

 

[CarpeNoctemV]

I don't feel like I have a home...

 

[silverwhisper]

home is where you dream of being, i say. which means that it's both a real place as well as a partially fictional place; it means it exists both within time, as an actual place you know, as well as without time, as a place you've never been yet.

ed

 

[honeypot104]

My Home is where I am most comfortable. My Home is where my Husband,my Lover,my Best Friend is. My Home is right here where I am now!

awwww *gets all misty eyed*
Is that part of the reason why you figured you'd keep him?

 

[honeypot104]

home is where you dream of being, i say. which means that it's both a real place as well as a partially fictional place; it means it exists both within time, as an actual place you know, as well as without time, as a place you've never been yet.

ed

Huh.

So does that mean that you can never be truely home? That there'll always be an element of "seeking"? Or rather that it can exist anywhere, anytime, because its something you carry inside you?

 

[silverwhisper]

i meant the latter. :>

ed

 

[honeypot104]

i meant the latter. :>

ed

Yay, there's hope for me yet!

 

[angelkitty7888]

My home is with my friends and family it doesn't matter if it's a mansion or a run down shack... if we're hungery or there's a feast... Home is where the people i love and i can just be together... talk and joke with friends, cuddle with my girlfriend, and see people that i know care about me who i care about in return.... that's home

 

[silverwhisper]

honeypot: well goodness, the alternative's awfully damned grim...! :>

ed

 

[Bandit58]

My home now is the small unit Gil and I share, in Sydney Australia.

Until I was 45, I lived in a small rural area in New Zealand. I grew up in a small village, got married and moved 20 km away from my parents and lived in that area, in 3 different houses, for the next 23 years.

When I separated from my husband, I moved back to that small village. I was working at the local school and was renting the school teacher's house. When my job became redundant I had to move out, so I moved to a small pensioner unit in a small town 14km away. I wanted to be close for my daughter and elderly parents, but none of those places felt like "home", just stopovers really.

By the time I decided to move to Australia, that area I'd lived in for so long really wasn't "home" any more. My parents had sold their house where I grew up and moved to the South Island near my brother. My son was at university, my daughter was living with my ex husband, I didn't have a permanent job and was on the dole.....so I decided to follow my heart to Sydney. I am very happy here with Gil and we are about to get married. It's been quite a culture shock and I'm still getting used to all the people and traffic!

I have been back to NZ a couple of times since.....it feels strange going back to the old places and seeing old faces......I have changed so much in 3 years I feel like I don't belong there anymore. Which is a good thing I think because it means I have grown as a person and am finally being the real me

 

[TE999]

Home is more than where you hang your hat, it's a state of mind.

I've lived in houses big and small, apartments ditto, barracks, tents, house trailers and even my car. They were all home to me at the time and some still hold a special place in my heart.

Home is where the rain and cold are outside, the food is hot and there's a warm body next to you.

Let us never forget those who do not have one tonight.

Peace.

Tom (TE999).

 

[honeypot104]

My home now is the small unit Gil and I share, in Sydney Australia....

.... I am very happy here with Gil and we are about to get married. It's been quite a culture shock and I'm still getting used to all the people and traffic!

I have been back to NZ a couple of times since.....it feels strange going back to the old places and seeing old faces......I have changed so much in 3 years I feel like I don't belong there anymore. Which is a good thing I think because it means I have grown as a person and am finally being the real me

Bandit, that's wonderful! Congratulations and all best wishes for the life you have made for yourself, and the home you have created.

 

[honeypot104]

honeypot: well goodness, the alternative's awfully damned grim...! :>

ed

Damned grim indeed! Luckily there's hope...

 

[moofv]

http://img64.exs.cx/img64/4951/beach_lg.jpg

 

[SecretLove69]

My home is in his arms.
I know I'm there when I feel his heart beating against my temple as he cradles me to his chest.
When I hear his breathing, when I hear his moans - those are the sounds of my home - where I'm happy and safe.

He comes to me in the night
Filling my dreams
Healing my mind
Elevating my soul
I awake renewed and rejoicing.​

 

[honeypot104]

I'm moving shortly (in less than a week), and while I love my apartment I don't feel like it's ever been home, despite all the odds in its favor. It has great features which I adore, I put all my pictures up (first time ever), I've really settled in, but still it doesn't seem to quite cut it. As I prepare for my next adventure I think I'm a little anxious that I won't find a home there either. Thanks for all your different perspectives and inputs on "home", it's comforting to know that a) home comes in many forms and b) that I'm not the only one who isn't there right now.

 

[Amarok0682]

Home is anywhere. If you can let go of your insecurities you can be happy anywhere, but I will say that if you can be anywhere with that one person you love then there is nothing better.

Imagine, you didn't have anything holding you in one spot but you go anywhere with one person. Any location you ended up in would be an adventure and it wouldn't matter where your origional "home" was.

 

[ShinigamiSama]

home is back in Chemainus, such a boring little town but it'll always be home

 

[KinkyDaisy]

Home is wherever my Mom is.

 

[carrie-on]

awwww *gets all misty eyed*
Is that part of the reason why you figured you'd keep him?

Smiles...Yes it is. I haven't been here in awhile and didn't see this post or I would have answered you sooner. We have been married for 32 yrs and I wouldn't change a thing. Well maybe I would change a few things, but we have been happy,rarely fight,and our daughters have all 3 grown up to be productive,happy women themselves. I told him once that "there may be times I don't like you very much,but I will always love you!" Home is where he is,no matter where it is!