Two days ago I shared a scrapbook post that mentioned our “home away from home” and that subsequently referenced Curtain Bluff in Antigua (aka Wadadli). Immediate context was this welcome letter.
That welcome letter and the sea urchin test (ie. shell) featured in that post.
A fragile artifact from our home away from home…
[…]
A souvenir that sits atop our bathroom sideboard, reminding me of family vacations in Antigua.
(Source: Homeness: Sea Urchin Test)
I said *immediate context* because the concept intrigues me well beyond an edenic oasis in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean that we’ve come to love as a family getaway.
Our home away from home is first and foremost Santa Fe, New Mexico. In fact, our notion of home for the last decade or so encompasses both of our bases on the Adirondack Coast and the high desert Southwest. This expanded understanding of homeness has evolved (and sometimes challenged) our conception of home. Where / what is home when one is away from home? Or when home is distributed across two distinct locations?
Away from Home
In many respects our years spent rehabilitating Rosslyn were north-starred with a protracted attempt to create an ideal home. For us. For our families. For our friends. Even for Tasha, Griffin, and Carley, our Labrador retrievers.
Homing. Nesting. Hosting. Entertaining.
Yet our time away from Rosslyn, traveling and on vacation, for example, and later on when spending time at a new home in Santa Fe, and eventually another home in Santa Fe, expanded our conception of home.
I mentioned above that it challenged our conception of home, and it did. As our identification with place — a base for our family, our lives, and our work — grew beyond the bricks and mortar of Rosslyn, beyond the community of Essex and environs, beyond the lifestyle and organizations and activities of our North Country life, our notion of home enlarged.
At home and away from home were no longer as clearly delineated as they’d once been. This was especially true when family, friends, and our dogs accompanied us. Perhaps home was not just a place?
Home Away from Home
What if our notion of home were portable and protean? What if home away from home had more to do with familiar connections and a sense of belonging than an address, a building, a hoard of belongings? What if home is more verb than noun?
What do you think?