I was looking for a definition of "home" and a dictionary I found online states that home is "a place where one lives, a residence" but I don't agree much...
Home is not only a place that we choose to live in, I think home is a place we love, a place that makes us feel comfortable, a place where we can be ourselves and definitely a place that we're used to, that we know...
I was thinking about "home" because last weekend I went to this beautiful beach, about 7 hours away from home... A friend of a friend recommended this place because it's peaceful and quiet and people from the city can really use a relaxing trip like this... we got to this beach and the moment I got there, I knew that I was going to sacrifice comfort and convenience for a few days of calm and peace and I was ok with that, I knew it would only be for a few days...
We were ready to experience nature at its best, we had our tent, our insect repellent and our cell phones as a small part of convenience that we could carry from the city into the beach.
After driving around looking for a spot to park and set our tent, I realized that my signal was gone, I had no connection to the world I'd left behind and as soon as we set our tent, I realized that ants had occupied it before us and that our insect repellent, wasn't repelling anything at all jeje but I was willing to enjoy the experience anyway...And I enjoyed the experience indeed... I noticed that people there have a peaceful life, they aren't stressed or worried about anything, they have no deadlines, nor schedules or cell phones to disturb their tranquility. People just work for a few hours selling food to the visitors and then go back to their small houses to enjoy their quiet life.
For a moment, I envied their life... I wondered what it would be like, doing nothing all day long but resting and serving food from time to time... At the beginning, I liked the idea, the first day I stayed there, I really thought: "these people are lucky".
That same night, just laying on the sand I looked up at the sky and saw thousands of stars and shooting stars. I couldn't believe the night sky, it was so beautiful, majestic and mysterious. I fell in love with the sky because I'd never seen anything like that before and I couldn't believe that some people were lucky enough to call such a beautiful place "home".
The next day I kept analyzing the life of these people, I hadn't pointed it out to any of my friends but that night, one of my friends, Andy said out loud what I had been thinking through the whole trip... She had noticed their peaceful life too and we commented on it, but as we spoke about it, I realized that I have great things too back home...
I do have a stressful and busy life but I have other things that I'm already used to and that have made me the person that I am, with pros and cons; I'm used to my life and it has worked out for me because it has made me happy; even though I can't see that beautiful night sky from the city, I can always have signal on my cell, I need no insect repellent all day long and I have the most comfortable bed I've ever laid on. I love getting home after a hard day and watching some T.V., reading a book or just talking to my dad and brother. I love hanging out with my friends, seeing them anytime we can and dancing at our favourite bar, just drinking, laughing, enjoying life... To us, to me, this is home. My stressful and busy city is what I'm used to, this is the place I can call "home", this is what I know and where I feel comfortable.
Just like the people on the beach lack certain conveniences I do have, I lack of other things they have but I'm happy living here, honestly I don't think I could get used to living the life they do, I could just get used to visiting the beach from time to time for a few days and then coming back to the place I'm lucky enough to call "home".
marHome is not only a place that we choose to live in, I think home is a place we love, a place that makes us feel comfortable, a place where we can be ourselves and definitely a place that we're used to, that we know...
I was thinking about "home" because last weekend I went to this beautiful beach, about 7 hours away from home... A friend of a friend recommended this place because it's peaceful and quiet and people from the city can really use a relaxing trip like this... we got to this beach and the moment I got there, I knew that I was going to sacrifice comfort and convenience for a few days of calm and peace and I was ok with that, I knew it would only be for a few days...
We were ready to experience nature at its best, we had our tent, our insect repellent and our cell phones as a small part of convenience that we could carry from the city into the beach.
After driving around looking for a spot to park and set our tent, I realized that my signal was gone, I had no connection to the world I'd left behind and as soon as we set our tent, I realized that ants had occupied it before us and that our insect repellent, wasn't repelling anything at all jeje but I was willing to enjoy the experience anyway...And I enjoyed the experience indeed... I noticed that people there have a peaceful life, they aren't stressed or worried about anything, they have no deadlines, nor schedules or cell phones to disturb their tranquility. People just work for a few hours selling food to the visitors and then go back to their small houses to enjoy their quiet life.
For a moment, I envied their life... I wondered what it would be like, doing nothing all day long but resting and serving food from time to time... At the beginning, I liked the idea, the first day I stayed there, I really thought: "these people are lucky".
That same night, just laying on the sand I looked up at the sky and saw thousands of stars and shooting stars. I couldn't believe the night sky, it was so beautiful, majestic and mysterious. I fell in love with the sky because I'd never seen anything like that before and I couldn't believe that some people were lucky enough to call such a beautiful place "home".
The next day I kept analyzing the life of these people, I hadn't pointed it out to any of my friends but that night, one of my friends, Andy said out loud what I had been thinking through the whole trip... She had noticed their peaceful life too and we commented on it, but as we spoke about it, I realized that I have great things too back home...
I do have a stressful and busy life but I have other things that I'm already used to and that have made me the person that I am, with pros and cons; I'm used to my life and it has worked out for me because it has made me happy; even though I can't see that beautiful night sky from the city, I can always have signal on my cell, I need no insect repellent all day long and I have the most comfortable bed I've ever laid on. I love getting home after a hard day and watching some T.V., reading a book or just talking to my dad and brother. I love hanging out with my friends, seeing them anytime we can and dancing at our favourite bar, just drinking, laughing, enjoying life... To us, to me, this is home. My stressful and busy city is what I'm used to, this is the place I can call "home", this is what I know and where I feel comfortable.
Just like the people on the beach lack certain conveniences I do have, I lack of other things they have but I'm happy living here, honestly I don't think I could get used to living the life they do, I could just get used to visiting the beach from time to time for a few days and then coming back to the place I'm lucky enough to call "home".
ps. thanks to mich and andy for the beautiful pics of our trip
2 comments:
I couldn't agree more with you... as you know last year I was far away from "HOME"... and although I was living in a great city (the city I dream to live in), with great people as work partners (of course with one or two exceptions), and excellent visitors from time to time (jeje) it wasn't home at all... because I missed all those talks with my family; the funny moments with my friends; yes.. I have to accept it, I really missed my team; and what about the weather, the food, everything!!
When I came back, I realized that I have everything here... I don't need to go somewhere else... no in this moment, right now I'M HOME...
MAYE
PS. Thanks for sharing all these thoughts cagnal..
cagnal, you're totally right, you can always go to beautiful places, meet great people and try different food but as dorothy used to say: "there's no place like home"... thank you for sharing :)
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