A question that was posed to me recently and has kept spinning around in my head was “What does it mean to be home”? When my mother said to me as a child “don’t be home to late”, I knew where my head was to lay at night but wasn’t certain that was supposed to be my home. Now, as I make my way to Colorado where my father now lives, I ask myself “is THIS now my home”? Maybe “home” is just another iteration of “we are all just walking each other home”, a quote from Ram Das? Where we help each other through our own mortality, returning “home” as we eventually leave these meat suits behind.
My preference about where I make my “home” has only had one requirement. Anyplace where I can have peaceful sleep. I haven’t been really seriously attached to materialistic things in my life even though there are things that I like to have around me. Stuff like essential oils, incense, orthopedic pillow, stocked cooking pantry, etc.. Home not only is a physical place, but also the things we surround ourselves with. There is a meaning of home that means the physical place and the stuff in it.
“Home” has also been a proverbial mental – psychological – spiritual place that we return to when life gets a little overwhelming or when we cannot find a way out of our own suffering. A state of equilibrium in our heads. A state of mind where peace and joy and acceptance rule. There are so many self-help books, therapy – counseling, and online courses that want to help people be happy and experience joy in life.
I’d like to think that the idea of “home” is considered a peaceful place where our bodies and minds can exist in a state of peace and oneness with the universe. So, then, why are most of our children unaware of how to deal with their own feelings, emotions, unfulfilled desires, and suffering? Thoughts run through my head about this all the time. I see a new set of students every 8 weeks and the stress I witness in them has only gotten worse.
We live in a democratic culture where issues are disputed by a judge. The judge then determines who is to blame and who is the victim. But, when we are dealing with our internal world of feelings and emotions, desires and suffering there is no real blame or a victim. Putting a murderer through the death sentence does not solve the issues in the internal world of the victims allowing them to find peace and come back “home”. People can spend so much time maneuvering our thoughts through events and circumstances and never make it back home to that peaceful place. And we cannot buy our way home either. Although many believe that money will be any problem solver.
Home… is the place where we can find the most peaceful existence within ourselves and with the outside world. Home… is the place where we rest our physical bodies and enjoy our material things.
It’s time to find our way and to help each other find our way…. home.
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