home

written for a friend, at home during the COVID-19 lock-down.

Home is a feeling rather than a place. It is warmth, safety, and acceptance. It is knowing that no matter what happens in life, you will always be loved for who you are.

Some of us spend our entire lives chasing that notion of being at ‘home’ or going back ‘home’ without contemplating what ‘home’ really is. Home is love and happiness. Some of us are born into it, some of us find it later in life. Most of us fail to appreciate it. Most of us fail to settle for it. Most of us fail to see it.

We set targets for ourselves, endlessly. As soon as we reach one, the next target appears. We move forward not knowing that each step might be taking us away from home, happiness, and love.

Home is an anchor and a compass — the further we go, the more likely we are to get lost. Home is every soul’s essence, and very few of us manage not to forget that. We abandon those we love, perhaps thinking there is a possibility for better places to call home.

We betray the children we once were by letting go of their innocent dreams. We forget who we are, our origins, our aspirations. We forget what we used to call home. We trade our home for houses made of cards.

Home is a feeling rather than a place. It is stable and does not change regardless of your income, career, possessions, positions, politics or power in life. It does not judge you for your mistakes. It does not care about your clothes, looks or money. It does not ask for expensive gifts, promises, achievements. It does not set deadlines for you. It does not define you by idealized presumptions of success.

Home is knowing that there is someone out there thinking of you when you are all alone in the middle of a cold night. Oftentimes all it takes to get back home is a simple phone call or a message saying “I love you”, “I am sorry”, “I miss you”, “I care about you”, “I am thinking of you”. Have the courage to look for your home in familiar faces and reach out to them. Make peace with your past.

Make use of this time to think things through, to slow down, sit down, and relax. Have the courage to finally comprehend your home is a universe you share with the rest of us. We all want you to know that you are at home, you are not alone, and you are loved for who you really are. For this home, your existence matters more than you could ever know.

Home is a feeling rather than a place. Home is your strength. Home is your essence. Home is you.