Home is where….

I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about the meaning of Home. Is it where the heart is? Is it where you hang your hat? Is it one place, or many places? The idea that a person has just one real Home seems to be fairly popular, but buying in to this idea can, for some people, lead to an endless search for that elusive place.

When I think about my own Home, several different places are part of the equation, and how long I actually lived in a place doesn’t seem to be a factor. To me, Home is any place where I leave some part of myself, and where I want to return to reclaim those parts. It is based more on the people in a place – family and friends – than on the place itself. It is based on how I feel upon returning to that place after an absence – that feeling of returning Home.

My childhood home in Mississippi was part of my Home equation as long as my parents were living there. However, now that my father is gone and my mother lives somewhere else, that place doesn’t feel like Home any more. The place I currently live in Alabama is technically “home,” and I like it there, but it doesn’t feel like Home. It’s just a place I am staying while working there and looking after my mother. There are other places in Alabama, however, that are part of my Home equation.

Chiang Mai is a big part of my Home equation. I remember when I first arrived in Chiang Mai (in April 2012), I immediately felt at home, and it wasn’t long before it became Home. When I arrived here two days ago after an eight month absence, I had that wonderful, euphoric feeling of being Home – of being whole again. I was reunited with my friends and Thai family, and with all those parts of myself that I left behind.

It comes down to wholeness. Where do you feel whole? It might be one place or many places; it might stay the same or it might change over time. Home is anywhere you feel whole.

Home in Chiang Mai

Tags: , ,