I’ve been thinking about what kind of places encourage me to be all of me. The places I go to balance myself and get in touch with my deepest fears and my sweetest delights. My place of all places, when nothing else will quite do.
Do you have such a place? I’ve thought about all the places I’ve been to, everything I have seen. There has been much to fascinate and inspire me, but there is one place I keep returning to. It’s my home.
I think how fortunate I am to have a home. And to have a good one. I am warm and comfortable, safe and loved. Like most others in my neighbourhood, I have far more than I strictly need. It’s not like that for everyone, and I know that I am fortunate. Being safe too – how many women are afraid at home? How many have no safe haven, have no one to love and take care of them? I have all of that, and am truly blessed.
In my home I have space to explore my thoughts and ways of being, digest impressions from the outer world and let my emotions and thoughts mature. This is where I do my growing, my evolving as a person. Whether it is alone, in silence, or in the company of those that I love, home is always the place I love being most of all.
Now, what is so special about home is that it’s, well, home. It’s my base, where I come to rest and evaluate what I have learned in the outside world. Sitting in my chair, processing my thoughts and emotions, thinking aloud with my love, I find balance and peace.
This is where I come when I want to explore all that I am at the same time. The contradictions, the competing aspects, my own expectations and the expectations of others. Here I can rest in my weaknesses, my flaws and inadequacies, embrace them and love them as a part of me. I can develop my strengths and adjust my moral compass. Here I come to look myself in the mirror.
Home is where I work through the bad things I have done. My mistakes, my thoughtless and hurtful acts. Working through them I learn and grow, and in this way avoid doing them again. I sit with the realisations and explore them, they are part of me just as much as the clever stuff. Accepting me the way I am, loving myself, liking myself – it is at home I have the time and space to do this. Without this process I would cease to grow as a person, and for me this growth and change is a goal unto itself.
A friend of mine tells me that extrovert people recharge their batteries in company and introvert people recharge in solitude. Most of us are a mixture between these two extremes. I love being with people who inspire and challenge me, who teach me and move me. But I also need to be alone. At home. In solitude with my thoughts and emotions, where my spirit breathes freely. Above any other place, my special and sacred place is my home.
Vild Prestegard is an anthropologist, holistic therapist, Reiki master and public speaker based in Norway. She is a regular blogger for Cycle Harmony. You’re welcome to contact her at helhetligbehandling@gmail.com with questions and comments.
Image source: Provided by the author.
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