What is it exactly that makes a House a Home to you?
As we return to this Month's SWEET SALVAGE "For The Love Of Home" Event, I paused to reflect upon what Creates the Love Of Home for me particularly.
And what Created the most Welcoming and Inviting aspect in the various Homes of others that I felt particularly Comfortable in?
Not that there's a Right or Wrong way to 'Do Home' since it represents different things to different people and is very Personal and Subjective. But there are some Homes that we Truly fall in Love with or Admire... and others, not so much.
And for me anyway, Beauty is Secondary to Atmosphere... a place can be Breathtaking, but not have the Feeling of Home to me at all.
Yet others can be very Informal and even have 'Issues' in the arena of Housekeeping, Style or Possessions and still be so Inviting, Comfortable and Love filled, that we could hang out there anytime and really be a Home we Love and Connect to and want to go back often.
Often it is the little Touches that make a House a Home and make us just plain Feel Good to be there.
I've thought about all of the Homes I've Lived in over the Years, there were many since we led a very Nomadic Lifestyle... and even though we put our Stamp on each and every one had merits, there were just some that we Loved more than others.
Though I have never been back to any of them to re-visit Old Homes we've Lived in... there are some I would like to have experienced once again... and see what has remained the same... and what has changed with the various Occupants it might have been Home to since we left?
Sometimes it is a particular Location that was Special... or the People who were our particular Neighbors and Friends during that Era of our Lives... other times it may have been the actual Structure that enamored us.
Or the Memories we had of that Place and that point in Time.
Other Places might have Housed us for a Time but never really Felt like Home, for whatever reasons... and we never looked back once we left.
We were Fortunate to have the Experience and Opportunity to Travel far and wide, to many different States and Countries... but I do recall, even though we never put down roots anywhere in particular for most of my Life... of having a Feeling of Homesickness at times. Either for a Home and Community we had departed from... or from being Abroad and away from our Home Country and Culture.
If I thought I could never go back I can't Imagine how Intense that Feeling of Homesickness might have escalated to should we have become ex-patriots of our Home Country and decided to make Foreign Soil our New Home? Though I Loved so much about every State or Country we Experienced... I definitely had my Favorites of where I Felt more at Home.
And because we moved often, I also found that for us, we tended to 'Get Over' previous Homes easier than folks who might have put down Roots or stayed put for extended periods of their Lives. We tended to make where ever we were at NOW our Home.
And there is a Strange thing that happens when you've been used to moving often... even if you do finally put down Roots, as we have in our Present Home, which I Assumed would be our last move ever... you begin to get itchy feet and Wanderlust... you begin to look around at other Possibilities even if you really Love your Home.
I Confess I've been doing this a lot lately and I don't really know why because I Love this Old House and it was a Dream come True to Purchase it, so I don't know that I'll ever want to Sell it and not pass it down to subsequent Generations... but I do now realize I might not always choose to Live here Permanently myself either!?
If I've fallen in Love with someone else's Home I can find it hard to Believe they would ever want to just pick up and Leave to move somewhere else... especially if the Home they're leaving behind was a Huge Labor of Love they Invested into it. But then I Reflect upon how often this has happened to us too... where it was just Time and we moved on to another Home.
I can't say I haven't cried a river of Tears when that Time came, because there is that Attachment to a Place you have Invested yourself, your Time, Talents and Treasures into. Living and Experiencing many Happy Memories that will always be Sentimental to you and link you to that Place in a Special way.
No matter how Excited you may be to Move On and Occupy the New Dream Home... you always Hope that whoever Receives your Old Home will take care of it and Love it as you did and Appreciate all that you might have done to Improve it.
And maybe in part that is why I've chosen never to go back... because I'd like to Remember how it WAS and not risk seeing what it has now become... or that it might not even Exist anymore?
And I do Believe in the Old Saying that Home is where the Heart is. A Home is going to be an Extension of ourselves in so many ways and can Reveal so much about who we really are and what we really Value. It will reflect our Priorities, our Strengths, our Passions and even our Shortcomings.
Be sure to return as we continue Experiencing SWEET SALVAGE'S Interpretation of 'For The Love Of Home'...
Blessings from our Home in the Arizona Desert... Dawn... The Bohemian