Home

I wrote this blog in Feb 2021, a month after we’d move into our home and just before we found out we had a baby on the way. I thought I’d share it here, as it could be a helpful way to start thinking about what home means to you, and where you may want to move to next.

What is home?
A place to feel safe and secure.
To house our things.
To retreat. To unwind. To recover.
To spend time with friends and loved ones.
To feel accepted. To feel belonging.
To raise a family. To make memories.
To express identity. To do work.
To feel in tune. To be ourselves.
To flourish…

Home is central to human life. It’s personal and it’s political. Without the comfort of its facade and roots (as well the connections that can come with being part of a community), it can be very challenging to build a life. For many it can therefore be just a concept, creating nostalgia for a distant past or even an envisioned future home.

While it’s important to always be grateful for the shelter and opportunities that come with having a bolthole, a home is so much more than just bricks and mortar.

For some, their idea of home is also the familiar, their memories of childhood innocence, or their land and country. For others, it can be the feeling of contentment and loss of self-analysis that can come with being with people they resonate with or doing something that causes them to feel ‘in their element’ – rather than being about the physical built environment.

It could even be the open road, mother earth itself or a calm feeling of acceptance, connection and peace that someone carries inside. 

Personally, I can say that this house we’ve just moved into is the first place that has really felt like home in the UK to me since I lived in Brighton. Even though it’s only been a matter of weeks living here and there’s lots of work to do, I already have that intangible knowing and can see how it could potentially be a home for years to come.

Places in between have felt like home, but only fleetingly or in some partial ways – they haven’t been the all-encompassing idea of home.

I spent nine years in Brighton from 2003 (when I was 18), and always think of Brighton as the first place I really felt ‘at home.’ Where I felt part of a community and in tune with myself.

It’s felt like a long journey of twists and turns to have this feeling again. That’s not to say I regret the journey because it was filled with life and learning. There are many times when I began to plan a move back to Brighton but I visited again last year, and that feeling was no longer there. The place seemed different and I didn’t resonate with it any longer.

Where is home to you and what does home mean? This seems a good place to start when thinking about where you might want to move to next.