Friday, July 5, 2013

What signifies you are home?

A family emergency finds me back home unexpectedly—HOME-home, the place my roots grow deepest. Now that I’m here, my heart soars at the sights and smells and sounds and textures and tastes that tell me I’m HOME.



My time is limited here today but here’s a prompt for your memoir: What signifies HOME-home for you? What sights, smells, sounds, textures, and tastes? Capture that for your readers. Sensory details add richness to your stories, insights into your personality, and details about you that your family might not know otherwise.






7 comments:

  1. I've lived many places, and was homeless (living out of my car) for a time, and I have discovered that for me, with my medical issues, home is where I know my favorite chair awaits me, along with my comfortable bed and blankets, the food I can eat without getting sick, and people nearby whom I can call if needed. I'm a nester, I guess, and I am at home in the comfy nest I created for myself, where I can nestle in and remain surrounded by my favorite things, in a perfect spot, near people I treasure. I've had many nests, and they've all felt like home when I returned to them.
    Then there are the smells of honeysuckle and lilacs, which bring me home no matter where I find them. The beach - any beach - brings me home to all the beaches of my life. The edge of a gentle surf is home. Water in a stream is home.
    God is home, and God is everywhere. But there's nothing like my nest, assembled by myself from the bits of stuff I treasure, that contain traces of beloved people and memorable times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Samantha, thanks for sharing what "home" means to you. I was especially struck with your experience that at one point your only home was your car. Wow, that gives perspective, doesn't it?! Like you, I am a nester. Even if I have only a tiny room, even if it's barely furnished, it can be my sanctuary. You and I have a lot in common -- beaches (the fragrance of driftwood bonfires), lilacs, God. Lovely. Thanks again for sharing yourself and your thoughts of home with us.
      Linda

      Delete
  2. Linda, whatever has brought you home suddenly, I'm praying for you. Sights and sounds and smells are so important in our writing -- thank you for the reminder!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sherrey, you are so dear. Thank you for your prayers. I am deeply touched. Bless your heart.

      Linda

      Delete
  3. Perfect timing on this. We'd just gotten back from a week away with relatives, and coming HOME felt so good. I think, for me, there's a certain level of peace and quiet--an ordered clutter and a calm busy-ness that feels home. Of course, I'm talking about coming home to where I live now. When I think of going "home"--as in, to a childhood home, I'm surprised to find that it is not the place I lived the longest, but to the place where my greatest sensibilities were developed. I lived in Scotland for 3 1/2 years as a child, and when I think of "home", that is where I long to go--even though I lived in Oregon for the most years. There is something culturally, spiritually, that tugs me back across the pond....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lia, I appreciate your observation that "home" relates to where you were when your greatest sensibilities were developed. That's a powerful experience and time frame and sets the course for the future.

      I, too, experience that cultural, spiritual tug that is hard to define or explain. My son and granddaughters feel that same mysterious sensation about my home territory, north Puget Sound. It's hard to explain but you have found words to describe it.

      And as for Scotland -- Oh, my goodness! My family's roots are very deep in Scotland and I have traveled there 4 times. Where did you live in Scotland? It has such a rich, unique history and culture. Sigh...

      Thanks for stopping by, Lia.

      Linda

      Delete
  4. I hope all ends well with the family emergency. Home for me is still my mother's house out in West Texas. She still lives in the same neighborhood where I grew up, and although she lives in a different house now, the furniture is mostly the same.

    ReplyDelete