A Place or People?
Today the #scbwiArtober2024 prompt was Home. I knew immediately what I wanted to draw. Using a photo I had snapped many years ago as I left my parent’s apartment building here in my town, I sketched with pencil then applied sumi ink in various shades of wash.
The drawing represents the tradition my parents had of always stepping to the door, window or just outside their threshold to wave goodbye till we were out of sight. It is embedded so deeply in my memory that even as they have been gone these past few years I still see this picture in my head whenever I think of them.
To me, home is the embodiment of those we love and whom we love so deeply. Home is People. Home is Love.
Peter, Paul and Mary sang of it so beautifully in their song, Home Is Where The Heart Is. If you haven’t heard the song, search for it. The song will make your heart ache for an embrace from one you love.
A Place.
Home can be a love of place as well.
I have lived in five different places, but all of them in Wisconsin. I love Wisconsin. Which is not to say I love Wisconsin winters. Each of the seasons is clearly distinct, and a pleasure to look forward to. There are places of great beauty to see in Wisconsin. Many towns are rich with memorable history. The soil is prime for growing produce, rivers, lakes and streams abound, and the air is generally fresh and clear.
While I love to visit other places, there is nothing makes me feel as at ease as home.
People and Place.
Home is now an old Victorian farm house that once marked the edge of a small town, but is now surrounded by a couple new neighborhoods, and thankfully some donated wooded and prairie area for school children and community to traverse and study. It feels most like home when my daughters and their families come to spend time, or when my siblings stop by.
I can feel at home in their houses as well, because they are places of love and welcome.
Indeed, home is where the heart is, and if you love yourself, you can carry home with you wherever you go.