Your beautiful musing about "home" made me look up the definition. The OED has 33 meaning for it (2 of which are obsolete) but according to the Google AI overview (sharing that this is AI by way of documentation):
Residence: The house or flat where someone lives, especially with their family
Place of origin: The town, district, or country where someone comes from, or where they feel they belong
Habitat: The place where a plant or animal lives
Place where something is kept: An informal term for a place where an object is kept
Place where something was first done: The place where something was first discovered, made, or invented
The word "home" can also be used as an adjective to describe something that is related to one's home or country. For example, "effective or deadly" or "central; principal".
As a verb, "home" means to go or return home, or to direct or be directed onto a point or target.
Meaning, I guess, that home may be different for everyone.
And then, this beautiful 2012 article in Smithsonian magazine popped up: The Definition of Home. This jumps out at me: "But whatever else home is—and however it entered our consciousness—it’s a way of organizing space in our minds. Home is home, and everything else is not-home. That’s the way the world is constructed."
It strikes me that your spontaneous travel is a way of consciously making the world home. It is a way of knowing ourselves. And it strikes me further that that is a wonderful thing, something, perhaps, to strive for. If more of us were to consciously adopt the places where we find ourselves, and the people, experiences, customs as ours, it might enhance our ability to be find awe and inspiration and belonging wherever we find ourselves.
As T.S. Eliot wrote in The Four Quartets, "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
Thank you for this tender exploration, Gerard. As always, you've given us food for thought.
Oh Robin, thank you so much for your wonderful comment here. I had a pulse of light go through my body when you said: "It strikes me that your spontaneous travel is a way of consciously making the world home. It is a way of knowing ourselves. And it strikes me further that that is a wonderful thing, something, perhaps, to strive for." I love the way that you so accurately have articulated my mission statement with my travelogue and why I persist in wandering about the way I do. I have tried to look at even the most mundane of activities: going to the grocery store, walking through a familiar park, as opportunities to explore wonder and awe--as you say so perfectly "wherever we find ourselves." I want to look up your reference to Smithsonian Magazine on the definition of home too--I like this idea of using "home" as a way organizing space in our minds. Thank you again for all you bring to this discourse, so happy to be connected with you here on Substack!
Likewise, Gerard. That striving to make home wherever you find yourself is a gift. While I personally love to travel, I could not do it all the time. I need a nest to return to, a familiar space to cozy in, especially in winter. I think seasons can be a spur to home or not-to-home, too. By spring, I begin to feel ready to spread my wings, to see with new eyes how the world awakens. In summer, I am ready to fly and explore with the sun's brightest rays pouring over the earth. Summer is the best travel time, imho. And in fall, as my body is on alert to the fading of that light, the crepuscle, how everything in Nature falls and flutters down to earth again--that is the drawing in time for me.
So thank you for sharing how, in your wanderlust, home is always with you--and a gift to us, your fellow armchair travelers
What a beautifully written, thought-provoking post, especially when you try describing the concept of "home." I guess like a snail, we carry our homes wherever we go. And maybe that's why you feel free to spontaneous travel -- because you know that wherever you go is home, in a way.
I love the photos of your youth. Photos are intriguing because the viewer gets one image of what's going on in the photo, but it doesn't always capture the depth behind what's going on.
As an adoptive mom, I tried my best to give my daughter a sense of home, but she has wondered whether she has any genetic ties to certain medical conditions and I'm sure would have wanted to meet her biological family in China, but there's no tracing the information. I am disappointed too, because I'd love her to meet her biological family. Yet, like me, she is an artist, so she developed some of the same interests as I have.
I cannot imagine how difficult it was for you to deal with coming out and paying the price through being tormented for it.
I definitely have to check out Jeanette Winterson's Substack. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your feedback Beth! I have to say that being adopted can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, just to find people who "get" what it means to live through the process. I knew you had a special connection to being adopted because you are an adoptive mom and you've shared a great deal of your daughter's internal challenges with locating her origins and what it takes to feel "at home" with herself. I hope you'll engage with some of the Winterson essays because she really parcels out the idea of being adopted quite accurately, and for me, very emotionally. Most people take for granted their birth parents and lineage, but to have been adopted with no clue as to where you come from, is like being set a drift on the fast moving current of a river--and that notion stays with your through adulthood. Thank you for being a loyal reader Beth, your presence here means the world to me.
Hi Gerard, thank you for sharing such personal memories in this extremely beautiful post. I find it very thought-provoking, and I look forward making more unforgettable experiences with you when we welcome you as an honorary member of my own family over this coming Christmas period. Take care until then x
Oh Neil, your words truly move me! I am looking forward to being an honorary member of your family this Christmas in England. Thank you for being close here!
Congratulations Gerard, what an emotional article, I loved it!
Thank you so much for sharing those very personal and nostalgic passages from your childhood.
It's fascinating how memories of those moments can transport us to bygone eras and fill us with a sense of deep connection with the place and time.
In particular, I was very moved by the comment on the photo with your teenage brother. That image, loaded with so much history and feeling, perfectly reflects how time and the places we inhabit leave a mark on our being, transforming us into who we are today.
Reading your article made me reflect on what we call home, a concept that has always accompanied me as a learning traveler: the idea that, although when we travel we do not have a fixed home, we build homes along the way. Each city we explore, each culture we touch, each story we share, leaves something in us that becomes part of our being, our particular home.
For me, even a particular sofa in a particular café in a particular city, and through lived experiences, impatient waits, conversations, smiles, glances, can become a very special home to which I will always remain connected.
And that is where, just like those childhood memories or that photo with your brother, we feel that, even if we are far from where we were born, each trip gives us a new home, a corner of the world that becomes ours because of the experience we have lived, and to which we will remain linked for life.
Thank you for opening the door to your memories and for inviting us to reflect on how, as travelers, we create these invisible "homes" that accompany us throughout our lives.
It is a pleasure to read something so authentic and full of feeling.
Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback. It's truly an honor to think my memories might touch others and become reminders for what home means. As spontaneous travelers, I think we're always (whether we are consciously aware of it or not, building homes wherever we go.). You say it so eloquently Javier when you write: "although when we travel we do not have a fixed home, we build homes along the way. Each city we explore, each culture we touch, each story we share, leaves something in us that becomes part of our being, our particular home. For me, even a particular sofa in a particular café in a particular city, and through lived experiences, impatient waits, conversations, smiles, glances, can become a very special home to which I will always remain connected." I love this idea that certain places in certain (sometimes unfamiliar) cities, take on the real resonance of what "home" really means. You've inspired me with an idea for writing a future article on certain city landmarks that we must return to again and again in various places, just because it gives us that sensation, that ground to stand on, that feels so much like home! Thank you always for your readership! Your reflections are always powerful and truly deepen the topic at hand!
Your beautiful musing about "home" made me look up the definition. The OED has 33 meaning for it (2 of which are obsolete) but according to the Google AI overview (sharing that this is AI by way of documentation):
Residence: The house or flat where someone lives, especially with their family
Place of origin: The town, district, or country where someone comes from, or where they feel they belong
Habitat: The place where a plant or animal lives
Place where something is kept: An informal term for a place where an object is kept
Place where something was first done: The place where something was first discovered, made, or invented
The word "home" can also be used as an adjective to describe something that is related to one's home or country. For example, "effective or deadly" or "central; principal".
As a verb, "home" means to go or return home, or to direct or be directed onto a point or target.
Meaning, I guess, that home may be different for everyone.
And then, this beautiful 2012 article in Smithsonian magazine popped up: The Definition of Home. This jumps out at me: "But whatever else home is—and however it entered our consciousness—it’s a way of organizing space in our minds. Home is home, and everything else is not-home. That’s the way the world is constructed."
It strikes me that your spontaneous travel is a way of consciously making the world home. It is a way of knowing ourselves. And it strikes me further that that is a wonderful thing, something, perhaps, to strive for. If more of us were to consciously adopt the places where we find ourselves, and the people, experiences, customs as ours, it might enhance our ability to be find awe and inspiration and belonging wherever we find ourselves.
As T.S. Eliot wrote in The Four Quartets, "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
Thank you for this tender exploration, Gerard. As always, you've given us food for thought.
Oh Robin, thank you so much for your wonderful comment here. I had a pulse of light go through my body when you said: "It strikes me that your spontaneous travel is a way of consciously making the world home. It is a way of knowing ourselves. And it strikes me further that that is a wonderful thing, something, perhaps, to strive for." I love the way that you so accurately have articulated my mission statement with my travelogue and why I persist in wandering about the way I do. I have tried to look at even the most mundane of activities: going to the grocery store, walking through a familiar park, as opportunities to explore wonder and awe--as you say so perfectly "wherever we find ourselves." I want to look up your reference to Smithsonian Magazine on the definition of home too--I like this idea of using "home" as a way organizing space in our minds. Thank you again for all you bring to this discourse, so happy to be connected with you here on Substack!
Likewise, Gerard. That striving to make home wherever you find yourself is a gift. While I personally love to travel, I could not do it all the time. I need a nest to return to, a familiar space to cozy in, especially in winter. I think seasons can be a spur to home or not-to-home, too. By spring, I begin to feel ready to spread my wings, to see with new eyes how the world awakens. In summer, I am ready to fly and explore with the sun's brightest rays pouring over the earth. Summer is the best travel time, imho. And in fall, as my body is on alert to the fading of that light, the crepuscle, how everything in Nature falls and flutters down to earth again--that is the drawing in time for me.
So thank you for sharing how, in your wanderlust, home is always with you--and a gift to us, your fellow armchair travelers
Hi Gerry,
What a beautifully written, thought-provoking post, especially when you try describing the concept of "home." I guess like a snail, we carry our homes wherever we go. And maybe that's why you feel free to spontaneous travel -- because you know that wherever you go is home, in a way.
I love the photos of your youth. Photos are intriguing because the viewer gets one image of what's going on in the photo, but it doesn't always capture the depth behind what's going on.
As an adoptive mom, I tried my best to give my daughter a sense of home, but she has wondered whether she has any genetic ties to certain medical conditions and I'm sure would have wanted to meet her biological family in China, but there's no tracing the information. I am disappointed too, because I'd love her to meet her biological family. Yet, like me, she is an artist, so she developed some of the same interests as I have.
I cannot imagine how difficult it was for you to deal with coming out and paying the price through being tormented for it.
I definitely have to check out Jeanette Winterson's Substack. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your feedback Beth! I have to say that being adopted can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, just to find people who "get" what it means to live through the process. I knew you had a special connection to being adopted because you are an adoptive mom and you've shared a great deal of your daughter's internal challenges with locating her origins and what it takes to feel "at home" with herself. I hope you'll engage with some of the Winterson essays because she really parcels out the idea of being adopted quite accurately, and for me, very emotionally. Most people take for granted their birth parents and lineage, but to have been adopted with no clue as to where you come from, is like being set a drift on the fast moving current of a river--and that notion stays with your through adulthood. Thank you for being a loyal reader Beth, your presence here means the world to me.
Hi Gerard, thank you for sharing such personal memories in this extremely beautiful post. I find it very thought-provoking, and I look forward making more unforgettable experiences with you when we welcome you as an honorary member of my own family over this coming Christmas period. Take care until then x
Oh Neil, your words truly move me! I am looking forward to being an honorary member of your family this Christmas in England. Thank you for being close here!
Congratulations Gerard, what an emotional article, I loved it!
Thank you so much for sharing those very personal and nostalgic passages from your childhood.
It's fascinating how memories of those moments can transport us to bygone eras and fill us with a sense of deep connection with the place and time.
In particular, I was very moved by the comment on the photo with your teenage brother. That image, loaded with so much history and feeling, perfectly reflects how time and the places we inhabit leave a mark on our being, transforming us into who we are today.
Reading your article made me reflect on what we call home, a concept that has always accompanied me as a learning traveler: the idea that, although when we travel we do not have a fixed home, we build homes along the way. Each city we explore, each culture we touch, each story we share, leaves something in us that becomes part of our being, our particular home.
For me, even a particular sofa in a particular café in a particular city, and through lived experiences, impatient waits, conversations, smiles, glances, can become a very special home to which I will always remain connected.
And that is where, just like those childhood memories or that photo with your brother, we feel that, even if we are far from where we were born, each trip gives us a new home, a corner of the world that becomes ours because of the experience we have lived, and to which we will remain linked for life.
Thank you for opening the door to your memories and for inviting us to reflect on how, as travelers, we create these invisible "homes" that accompany us throughout our lives.
It is a pleasure to read something so authentic and full of feeling.
Congratulations again.
Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback. It's truly an honor to think my memories might touch others and become reminders for what home means. As spontaneous travelers, I think we're always (whether we are consciously aware of it or not, building homes wherever we go.). You say it so eloquently Javier when you write: "although when we travel we do not have a fixed home, we build homes along the way. Each city we explore, each culture we touch, each story we share, leaves something in us that becomes part of our being, our particular home. For me, even a particular sofa in a particular café in a particular city, and through lived experiences, impatient waits, conversations, smiles, glances, can become a very special home to which I will always remain connected." I love this idea that certain places in certain (sometimes unfamiliar) cities, take on the real resonance of what "home" really means. You've inspired me with an idea for writing a future article on certain city landmarks that we must return to again and again in various places, just because it gives us that sensation, that ground to stand on, that feels so much like home! Thank you always for your readership! Your reflections are always powerful and truly deepen the topic at hand!