Home

Looking at my home from the garden this morning.

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.

~ Wendell Berry, The Unforeseen Wilderness

Nobody’s bedroom now. But it does look very homey, doesn’t it? (Taken in Cleveland, Ohio, at the house used for A Christmas Story. This is Ralphie’s bedroom.)  I included this as a nod to the season.  And because I’m sorting through old photos.

Some of today’s photos are in response to Susanna Conway’s December Reflections prompt for today:  Home.  Home has so many definitions and connotations.  There are plenty of sayings and quotes about home, too.  There’s no place like home.  Home is where the heart is.  Home is where they have to take you in.  Home sweet home.

An item from somebody’s home. (You never know what you’ll find when you take a walk around here.)

M and I have moved around a lot during our 42+ years of marriage.  We’ve lived in the north, the south, the east, the mid-west, and just west of the Mississippi River (all in the U.S.).  We’ve traveled farther west, but haven’t lived there.  Yet.  Although we have no plans to move west, I never say never because honestly, I just don’t know where we might end up.

Into the frying pan.

Home has been many different apartments or houses and many different places.  Even my blog has moved from several different homes.  I’ve been blogging forever (since the late 90’s), in different forms and on different platforms.  My last blog, Life in the Bogs, was written from our last home which was in NE Ohio.  As those of you who have been around here for a while know, it has taken me a little while to settle here on the Eastern Shore, to begin to think of it as home.  Even so, there is a temporary quality to it.  M and I talk a lot about moving when he retires.

Dark-eyed Junco. The Eastern Shore is a temporary home to this bird. They winter here.

I believe home is where the heart is, that home can be a person as well as a place.  My heart resides with M, in a sense, and so he is my home.  The same with my children and grandchildren.  They are my home, too.  My body, where my physical heart lives, is also home.

High tide reflections.

Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.

~ Gary Snyder

I agree with Mr. Snyder about nature.  The earth is certainly home.

Walking up the lane (which is what they call long driveways around here).

Home is everything you can walk to.

~ Jerry Spinelli

That brings me back to place.  In addition to making a house a home, I need to feel a sense of place, of belonging, of knowing the landscape in which I’m living.  That is one of the many reasons why I walk pretty much every day.  I can walk the same paths over and over and over again, for years, and still learn something new about the place I am calling home.

Home, for now, is where the wild cherry trees mix with the loblolly pines.

That’s probably enough about home for now.  Brevity never was my strong suit.  Thank you so much for visiting and joining me on another ramble around the Wabi-Sabi ranch.  Thank you, too, for all the birthday wishes.  Let’s celebrate by watching the sunset at the Point this evening.  Sunset is scheduled for 4:44 PM again (third day in a row).  It’s a beautiful day, not too cold (40’s) and not too windy.  I think it will be near low tide, too, so we can walk along the shore and look for sea glass.  I’ve found some lovely pieces out there.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

A duck, way out there, at home on the water.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  966)  Dark-eyed Juncos and other birds that winter here.  967)  Celebrating my birthday by spending a few hours outside, meandering around, listening to the birds, communing with the trees, and watching the tide come in.  968)  A new toy (tablet) for my birthday.  969)  A dinner date with M tonight.  970)  A place to call home.

The brilliance of nature.