the heart is?
where you leave your crap?
where you sleep at night?
Where is home? What does it mean to you? In my travels and speaking to a world of different people in different places, I would surmise that home is the place that stirs the most emotion. A foreign girl I work with pulled me on this the other week- we were talking about our summer plans, and shared that I have an upcoming "trip home". "Ahhh... so you still say Canada is your home". I suppose so. I thought about it and would now not naturally say: "I'm going back to Canada" or even "I'm going to visit my family"- of course the latter is what I am doing, but it's not the natural response.
Now, this is where it becomes interesting in my head: I sit in our house and look around at what we have accomplished and really feel "Ahhh, this feels like home. This is our home. This is our stuff.". It does truly feel more than just our house- it feels like home. It's certainly a step up from when you travel with your job or know that your abode is not permanent. In those cases you do what you can to make where you sleep at the end of the day feel like home. You decorate it with some prized possessions, you hang up your clothes, you fill the fridge. Is home the familiar, then?
But... when I am at the end of my visit- home, will I say to my family and friends, "It's been great seeing you, but I am going home now."? I can say that doesn't yet feel natural. Even after two years and five months of being away (is what I naturally just typed- implying I am away from somewhere with an emotional tie. I could have just typed ... two years and five months of living in England), it feels awkward to say that I am going home (back to the UK) when in Canada. How long, if ever, will it be more natural for me to say that the UK is home? For those of you that have lived away from your family home for longer than you lived in it, what do you think?
Wikipedia says "home is a place of residence or refuge- referring to a building that contains the practical aspects of sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food.". In reading that I immediately want to argue that it doesn't have to be a physical house, more that it can also be an area or a land... Wiki does goes on to say the same. Dictionary.com offers different uses of the word: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, idiom. Until now, I certainly would not have out-rightly recognised each connotation. I'd have to say my favourite definitions are 1) as a noun: the place in which ones domestic affections are centred; and 2) as an adverb: deep; to the heart; the truth struck home. Both put the feeling into the word home- and if I can say anything for certain, it's that home always evokes emotion.
I've been immersed in the geographical location of home (Canada) this past few weeks in particular as we had an upcoming Cultural Diversity day at work and I prepared some treats and information to share. I find the whole event funny because it is the type of affair that we have in Canada so often to celebrate our melting pot/ mosaic society, and I thought it might be difficult to find information that is solely and typically Canadian. Rather, we are more a quirky people than I gathered, akin to other settled nations where we have put our spin on something brought in. The Wendy's Poutition (thanks, Kara) is a prime example because we certainly didn't invent chips (hmmm... I meant fries, but my fingers spat our chips). Other borrowed ideas we as Canadians feel nostalgic about are: Tim Hortons, Beaver Tails, and Canadian Club. Wrapped up in some truly Canadian ideas (Nanaimo bars, Lacrosse, Bannock, Basketball...), I am now sharing this mosaic to another jambalaya of people- and feeling proud to do so. So, who wants to visit me "at home" in the next few weeks?! ;)
