Where is Home?

Home has become a diffuse feeling in our digital world. But we need such a place to be happy.

Last year on 26 December 2019, I returned from my 2-month trip around the world. Many experiences during that time have shaped me and still today, a year later, I take a lot of strength from that trip. 

In the last weeks I often ask myself, where is the difference between home, homeland or a place to work. Is there a connection here or is it just a feeling.  Actually, home is neither a specific place, but a kind of utopia. It is rather a desire for the past, a transfiguration that is blander in reality than in the imagination. When I ask myself the question, "What is home for me?" And I would describe myself as a modern nomad, the answer is "Where my heart is." I identify home with the people I love and like. Places where I am happy. It is not connected to a place of residence.

Home also grows in our lives. Because the problems of the world, everyone knows, cannot be solved from bed. Of course it's warm and cosy there, but at some point you have to get up. And it's the same with home. If you want to enjoy the beauty of the world and develop a really deep bond with it, you have to leave your cocoon behind and experience being a stranger. Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and surely one of the freest people ever, once said, "The more you do, feel and see, the more you are able to do, and the more you will truly appreciate the most essential things like home, love and understanding friendship." Rejection comes from insecurity and insecurity comes from ignorance. The more you understand, the more you have experienced and witnessed, the less things will seem scary. The more often you leave your home, the greater it becomes.

It's good to look beyond the borders of one's own home and sometimes changing perspectives help you to understand things better. So I am glad that my home is a feeling, does not limit me and gives me the wide view to be surrounded by great people. 

Hence my wish for you  - don't be stubborn and close-minded - open your awareness.

I wish you peaceful holidays and all the best for 2021. 

Tom