Monday 8 March 2010

I would like to know . . .



WHAT IS HOME TO YOU?


Is it the place where you were born / place where you grew up / the place where you are living at present




44 comments:

  1. J. Frederick Allen Chandran says - The place where my family stays. I believe it is the individual humans who contribute a lot to the word "home."

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an interesting question that has so many answers, I feel.
    To me home has meant so many different things during my life; to begin with it was a place in a certain city, with a view and on a street I learned to recognize as a child. Later it became a country. Then again this changed and for along time it was where my parents lived.
    Being a true cosmopolitan today, today my home is anywhere where there are people that I love. Or in places I find tranquil and soothing.
    My home is today primary in one place, but it might change tomorrow again.;)
    Have a lovely evening dear Susan,
    xo
    Zuzana

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely
    and to me...Home is here --- where I am with my beloved son... safe and sound... and all the rest at peace...
    Great post

    ReplyDelete
  4. well - you know I deal with this question a lot in my writing, as being both an immigrant as well as belonging to a landless people... I feel at home in my city, Haifa, though I can never feel secure here. Not when I talk Arabic, not when my daughter is beaten on the bus when she speaks in Arabic, not when the state legislates racist laws, not when the memory of my people is being erased...
    but still - I long to feel at home here, and hope for a better future...
    hugs,
    khulud

    ReplyDelete
  5. I moved here to Naples Florida--HOME--at age 32, and it IS "home". Although at this time, I could live just anywhere in the whole world...I AM adaptable...to an extent--grin!

    ReplyDelete
  6. U shd know what I feel, I just wrote something abt it at PNA

    http://pinashpinash.blogspot.com/2010/01/im-home-really.html

    Home is where ur folks are, it's a place of freedom, comfort and choice and love in short that's home for me:)

    Good day Sus

    ReplyDelete
  7. The place where I grew up and the place where I am right now.

    Memories make home.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Home is where Love is..... Home is where Peace is..... Home for me is anywhere, where I can be comfortable with my surroundings.... comfortable with myself..... In the presence of the people I love and who love me back... ..
    .....HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS.....

    Cheers
    Seema

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have Home Home and Other Homes. Home Home is Cairo, Egypt. Other Homes are every country and city I've ever lived in... and there are many. And I so like that there are other countries and cultures that I can also call Home. It allows me to feel at home no matter where in the world I am. Maybe it's a survival instinct I developed at an early age... to quickly adapt to my new residence and slip into daily life. But it still works for me. And I love that! Such a big world out there, so many places to call Home... but Cairo will always have a special niche inside my heart.

    Nevine

    ReplyDelete
  10. Freddy:

    Individual humans, yes but what about the land?

    Zuzana:

    This is the most vital question, Zu. I guess many are confused and overwhelmed because they cannot find themselves a place to call 'home.'
    Zuzana, I am interested in knowing whether that geography of a place also contributes to the feel of 'home' and you talk so much about your place. I somehow don't think you are a cosmopolitan.

    Joy always.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dulce:

    Lovely answer. But what happens when the son moves, which will be home then?
    Thanks for your lovely words, as always!

    Khulud:

    I know that this is something you are trying to grapple with. Even I feel at home in Chennai but then somewhere I think this is not my place. I am pretty restless about this question.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Steve:

    Adaptable, yes! Humans are quite adaptive but where does your heart lie? Where would you associate yourself with?

    PNA:

    Lots of things you have said. This can be anywhere then. Any place with freedom, comfort and love. Hmmmm.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sameera:

    Is memories everything? Maybe you have sad memories of the place where you were born but isn't that your home. Take for instance people who have been ravaged by war. In spite of having bitter memories of that place, they invariably would want to die there. Like people in Sri Lanka.

    Seema:

    Anywhere?? This is not quite . . . How about Timbaktu? No. I think the place also plays a part along with people.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ruchi:

    But family is not eternal. Once you are married, what will be home?

    Nevine:

    Cairo! Yes, this is what I was having in mind when I asked the question. You have rightly said that there are many places to call 'home.' But there is one place which remains 'home' and one longs for that. I still don't know which one is like that for me. In my case it seems 'Here, there, everywhere.'
    By asking this question, I am grappling with my sense of 'home' as well.

    Hope you had a lovely day yesterday :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Why not Timbaktu, Dear Susan?? I have lived in different places and mostly with my lovely husband and children and as long as I have been comfortable with my surroundings I have been comfortable with myself and when I am comfortable with myself..... when I am with the people I am comfortable with..... my children and my family.... I am Home.... To me place does not matter.... It is the feeling of FEELING at Home that matters...:)
    I see that most of the comments are about what is the essense of home.... and most of us have overlooked the fact that you are looking for a specific place to call home... It's right there in your question repeatedly place..... place..... place....
    But this is what I think..... :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I feel I did not convey to you--really--that my home is anywhere, everywhere, BECAUSE (you may not understand this) wherever I go Alcoholics Anonymous is there with my meetings, my Peeps, any language will do--we all speak the one, "life after we have been next to death"...so there!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dear, Sweet Susan, I did leave you a reply on my blog, but I wanted to come by and say thank you for your kindest visit and your warmest wishes. I had a lovely day, yesterday, filled with new promise and promises. And I'm sending you smiles and hugs across the ether. You are ever so thoughtful, and ever so sweet. Thank you, dear friend.

    Nevine

    ReplyDelete
  18. It is where i get instilled with profound values and empowering lessons. A securing shelter that seggregates me from the noises in the background of my mind.


    A place that i long going back to regardless of what.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh! u overlooked the folks part, they are the epicentre...

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Pushpanjali Banerjee says:

    Say the home you were born into and the home you grew up have changed irrevocably and only exists now in the realms of memory, and the home you are living right now is not so home-like, then i guess it is the dream of a home, like a dream of someone, that keeps you going!

    ReplyDelete
  21. ummm,i think even then it will be family ( i mean the extended family ;)) (big sheepish grin !)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi dear, just like Dulce, home is where I am with my boy and parents. The people I love, and the people I want to be with everyday. Blessings

    ReplyDelete
  23. Seema:

    Hmmm. I agree with your idea of home. For you its the people and the emotional attributes primarily.

    Steve:

    Got that after a peek at your blog post :) Its more symbolic than concrete.

    Nevine:

    :) Love always.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Mohamed:

    We learn what makes us from our home. The second line I am quite not sure of. The longing you have described seems interesting. A longing to go back from where/what?

    Ashes:

    Oh yes :) Apologies.

    Pushpanjali:

    A very post-modern statement!

    Ruchi:

    A grin back to you :)

    Gaia:

    Been very very long. Hope you're well dear. I so knew that this would be your answer. Blessings to you as well :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. i just heard too. Neither can i..

    Sending you love and warm embraces, Susan..

    ReplyDelete
  26. To me home is where i was born, where i grew up, where my loved ones are and where i stay presently. I would choose all your answers. Coz I am pretty much comfortable in all these places and they keep me relaxed and happy :)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Home to me is my husband and children. Everything else is just pretty fluff.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Home is wherever I am with my loved ones.

    ReplyDelete
  29. i've never really associated a "place" with "home" - rather, home for me is me and my children - simple!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Silver:

    Sunshine and love to you always :)

    Something to Say:

    Welcome and thanks for putting down your insights. I value them. For you home is more about a place than people. Hmmmm. Nice.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Angie:

    Fluff!!! I would love to hear your explanation of 'fluff.'

    Shail:

    Welcome aboard. Thanks for writing down your insights. Loved ones make the home for many, I see. Does the place not matter at all?

    Jenean:

    Simple, yes dear one. When I asked this question I was grappling with the definition of 'home.' So you see the answers here.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I THANK ALL OF YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER THIS SIMPLE BUT VITAL QUESTION.

    I VALUE YOUR TIME AND PATIENCE IN ARRIVING AT A DEFINITION OF SOMETHING USED QUITE OFTEN IN OUR DAILY VOCABULARY -- home.

    JOY ALWAYS :)

    ReplyDelete
  33. Good question...hummmm I'll answer a different way then!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Wherever I settle, and lay my hat, I call home!!!!:)...no boundaries...real or artificial...!!!!

    Have a great day, friend:)

    Cyrus

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hmmm....
    For sure, home must be a safe place.
    Home is where children dwell and where laughter becomes an important ingredient, a place where wounds are healed, hurt feelings are bound up, and a place where risk is an acceptable part of living.
    To keep it from being a utopia – responsibility and accountability is always present.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Dear Sweet Dulce:

    take your time. I would like you to think about home rather than putting it down here in my blog.

    Cyrus:

    A place of comfort then. Yeah, no boundaries -- a place where we can be ourselves. Sometimes the parental house does not provide this so we have to establish our homes elsewhere.

    GQ:

    Thanks for coming by. I would like to know whether this 'safe place' is an emotional feeling or a concrete physical one?

    Responsibility and accountability is a criterion everywhere I think.

    Joy always.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Home is where I am going eternally! That is what I am looking forward to. Blessings

    ReplyDelete
  38. Dear JBR:

    But that is after death. What about the home when we are here.

    Joy always.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Home is where I live currently. With the people I care for, can fight with and love. :)

    ReplyDelete
  40. CG:

    Nice to know that. Be happy and joyous always.

    I liked the way you've said: ". . . can fight with . . ."

    ReplyDelete
  41. A very good question. Generally even I would have said that Home is where family is. But when I looked into your question again, many thoughts came to my mind.
    Well my answer might be wrong if I consider the case of a married man living with his wife. Does he feel the place where his parents are living as home or his own house where he is living with his wife as home or both.
    If I consider my personal experience, all my childhood days I had to leave the place every two years as my father was working in a central govt dept. Now as he is retired, we are not moving anymore. But still more than this house where we live in, I feel it as home whenever we go to the small town where I had the best times of my school life. Even I can differentiate the smell of the soil of that place and house as well.
    Home is the place where we have/had the best of our times. And best times we can have only when we have with us the love, family, the best people around, the best geographic location, best climate etc etc.
    Hence now I can say that home is a combination of all the above things.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Asif:

    This one question always stifles me as I am not very sure. I cannot say that 'family' is home as I have enjoyed being away from family as well. As for my birthplace, I never lived there. Now I am in a city for many years but don't feel close to it. Still grappling . . .

    Thanks for such a detailed meandering :) As you know already, it is much appreciated.

    Joy always.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Like I said in my post Susan, I believe home can be anything, anywhere, even a moment where your heart connects, it is a state of the mind. Love always

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails