Category Archives: Lesson 2:1

Where We Belong

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For this week’s post, I am reflecting on some of the beautiful stories about home that my classmates wrote this week. While I did not get the chance to read every post thoroughly, I was struck by the impact that the concept of home seemed to have on many of us and on our memories—and by the number of similarities between the experiences or feelings relating to home that many of us seem to have. In fact, while everyone’s experiences and stories were different, I found it hard to find values and stories that did not have at least one other post reflecting similar perspectives. While it doesn’t contain every commonality I observed, the following list summarizes some of the major similarities I found in the values, assumptions, and stories I read this week. These similarities include that home:

  • is connected to people (including pets). Many posts mentioned that home is connected to family, friends, pets, and/or significant others and that these relationships were more important than the actual location of one’s home.
  • is adaptable. While not always explicitly stating this, multiple posts reflected that home has changed throughout the years, depending on a number of things, such as one’s sense of connection to the place and people one is around.
  • is complicated. A number of posts talked about home being complicated, or not making sense. Some reflections suggested that this has changed throughout the times and places the blogger reflected on; overall numerous posts seemed to indicate that defining the concept of home and finding a home is complicated.
  • may be connected to a place, but isn’t merely one space. A number of posts also implied that, while home is often assumed to be a place, it is often not specific to a location. Some blog authors suggested that home can relate to the sense of one’s surroundings and things that one is connected to (such as the forest or the sound of rain) and that this sense isn’t directly tied to any one place; while it can be connected to places such as the ocean, it isn’t a specific place so much as a sense found in the presence of such an entity.
  • is a feeling and is where one feels a sense of safety, comfort, and belonging. Many posts reflected that home was a feeling more than a physical location, and, in broad terms, this feeling was also associated with a sense of safety—whether this be a sense of stability, connection, belonging, or comfort.
  • is sometimes not present in one’s life. While the focus of the previous blog prompt was to discuss home, the sense of a lack of home also came-up for me while reading others’ reflections. Chamberlin suggests that “[h]omelessness is also a condition of mind and spirit” (84), and this sense of “homelessness” seemed to be reflected in some of my classmates posts as they reflected on times when they have felt at home and times when they felt that this connection was lacking (whether in the past or in the present), even if they physically had a place to live in.

I also found that, while there were many common ideas about home, every blog didn’t mention all of the similarities listed above and, in some cases, a couple of blogs would share something in common that would be different from many others. For example, a number of my classmates mentioned how home was connected to independence and making home your own. However, while this idea was common among some people, it wasn’t reflected in all the blogs I read, and wasn’t consciously reflected in my own reflections on home.

Beyond this, some blogs prompted me to think of elements of home that I had not considered before, such as the importance of language in connecting one to people and place. As someone who is fluent in the language I’m commonly surrounded by and who has lived in the same region for the majority of their life, I hadn’t consciously thought of this facet of home, although it seems important in feeling a sense of safety and connection. I also didn’t find another mention of creating art or music in the other posts I read regarding home, which I found interesting as it was one of the first things that came to mind for me as something that connects me to a sense of home.

In addition to these thoughts, I found myself reflecting on the pieces that construct this sense of home for me and my classmates. Home seems to imply a physical place, yet for most of us, it has more facets to it than a physical meaning, and it sometimes doesn’t indicate a specific place at all. This caused me to wonder if home is constructed by different elements, such as physical places, interpersonal connections, the language and culture we feel a part of, a feeling of belonging, comfort, safety. In this way, home seems to have a lot to do with a sense of connection to these things, and yet it seems to be something different than a sense of connection. All of the posts I read told some form of story, and one even explicitly acknowledged that “home is in my story” (HannahWagner), in addition to the ones suggesting that home is related to stories we tell ourselves. Perhaps these different, yet similar senses of home can be best summarized by saying “there are many ways to build a home” (StephanieLines). In this way, home is like the different structures that create the places where we live, or, perhaps more applicably, create the stories we tell: possibly made of similar elements, yet constructed in different ways, in different proportions, at different times, and with different voices.

I feel a deep gratitude to everyone who shared their stories and reflections regarding home through this process. In particular, I send thanks to stephanie, Hope, Hannah, Madelaine, Chloë, Patrick, Francisco, Colleen, and Mikayla for the thought-provoking and insightful reflections that inspired this post.

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Is This Home?

Looking out the window, at the changing leaves and pale, grey sky, I think to myself: what is home? A deep feeling, a sense flowing through my veins, responds. It is a feeling that I struggle to find words for and that allows me to imagine I’m grounded. Simultaneously, it is a sense of longing and loving; a sense of heartache and connection; a feeling of deep gratitude and of nearly finding tears.

I have lived in the same place for most of my life. The house and region I grew-up in is the same space that I reside in now.

Yet, it has never fully felt like home.

Perhaps it is because of the recent family changes that have left most of my family living in another town, and left the soul of this house empty—causing Belle’s verse “Is this home? / Is this what I must learn to believe in?” to run through my head when it is vacant of music (“Home Lyrics”). Or, perhaps it is because my home has never been within four walls; perhaps there is some other reason. Still, it leads me to wonder, if the house that I have lived in for years is not home, then what and where is it?

The first thing that comes to mind, beyond these feelings, is the forest. Specifically, the temperate rainforests that can be found along the west coast of North America. Sitting in the forest, wandering in the forest, feeling a sense of gratitude: this feels like home. I turn to the ocean and the connection it has to the people and vibrant ecosystem here. Digging my feet in the sand, watching the waves roll in and out with my breath, feeling the misty, salty air on my face, I believe I feel at home.

ceilidh-2011-13-01-2011-10-17-25-pm-2360x3544Yet, I then start to wonder if my conception of home in this sense is contributing to the displacement of others, to the myth of terra nulls, and to the ongoing colonialism that underlies much of society. I wonder if I can ever truly belong to a place that my ancestors didn’t belong to, and if my own stories contribute to the erasure of the story and home of others.

For some, language, culture, and sense of being is rooted in place, but I have not learned the language of this place or experienced these additional connections, and while I can try to learn more about this place and its people, I wonder if I have a “home,” or should have a home, in a place where I am an “uninvited visitor.” I return to looking out at the darkening sky and tattered-looking leaves, wondering and wandering.

I do know that home has never been a building, or a container with four walls.

My mind turns to art and music. Other times when I have felt the sense I associate with home have been while I’m making music: jamming with friends, tapping my feet in time, or singing out from the deepest parts of myself—my chest and entire being resonating with the music and the moment I’m a part of. I’ve also found that feeling of home when I’m drawing or working with clay. I love the feeling of mud, clay, in my hands, the shape it takes as I carve it, form it; I feel connected to the Earth and the place I am working. Besides, my art often brings together these different senses of home with familiar forests and aquatic life reflected in my work.

Home… home…

It is the feeling of family and close friends nearby. It is the connection to this place—watching the waves role in and out with my breath—and the recognition of the connections between the living beings here, and between this life and this place. It is recognizing how I fit into this picture.

In my earlier blog post, when I mentioned my initial experience with “home,” I was looking for an escape—an escape from an unfamiliar environment that a younger version of me didn’t understand. Yet, when I think about the concept of home now, it is a space that I also don’t fully understand; a space that I’m not entirely familiar with.


I stop to look back out the window—the sky is still grey, the leaves are still orange, brown—and I turn to look at the wall, where a quote my mom gave me is placed.
Home is where your story begins, it tells me in cursive print.

img_4857Home has never been a building, or container with four walls, but it has been music, it has been the forest, it has been the ocean, my family, my art, my gratitude. It has been my community and the place that we are a part of. Home is adaptable and it is personal. It is a feeling and an idea, one that I am still navigating and figuring-out. Home is where I feel loved and feel loving. It is where I tell myself I belong, where the stories I tell leave a space for me in this world, where I have a connection to this place and the life here.

It is where the stories I make, the perspectives I share, originate from; home is the place where my story begins, and, like the rivers and oceans I feel so connected to, where it continues to flow from.

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