Home: Where Is Home, Really?

Where is home?

Is it where you grew up?

Where your family lives?

Where your things are?

The place you return to?

Or can home be somewhere you’ve never lived before?

I’ve lived in different countries, spent long periods travelling, and done plenty of shorter stints in places just to see how they felt.

For a long time, I think I was restless.

A new place seemed to offer a new version of life. New people. New culture. New possibilities.

And there was something wonderful about that.

But I’ve also noticed something strange.

There were times when I was thousands of kilometres from family, surrounded by unfamiliar people and routines, and somehow felt completely at home.

And other times, I’ve been somewhere familiar and felt strangely elsewhere.

So perhaps home isn't simply a place.

Maybe it's something to do with belonging. Or presence. Or the relationship between where our body is and where our mind keeps wandering.

Maybe sometimes leaving home helps us find ourselves.

And maybe sometimes the desire to leave is actually a sign that we haven't learned how to be where we are.

So where is home?

And how do we know when we've found it?

This Field Note is the beginning of the thought, not the conclusion.

Listen to episode 41 of the Sutterfaction podcast as we dive deeper.

See you there.

Evan