On Home

   
Can’t we all imagine how wonderful it must have been to be in Rio to see the Olympics! To marvel at the magnificent, 125-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Mt. Corcovado, extending its arms to embrace all below it! Or to languish on Ipanema beach or enjoy the vibrant nightlife! Certainly all of this must have been a thrilling, wonderful adventure for visitors and athletes themselves, and …by vicarious extension…those of us at home looking on. How many of us who knew we would never visit such an exotic place yet watched and dreamed of what such an experience might be like!

The looks of home...

Indeed…but then most probably our thoughts returned to us and to what it is that sustains our daily lives… the senses, smells, the looks of home. For those of us who have established roots in a loving environment, home has great meaning. Whenever we come through the door, it receives us. When we awaken in the morning, it awaits our choices. In my case, I am so familiar with its turns and spaces that I can walk through the house in the dark of night and never run into anything. My home is an old friend in so many ways as it receives guests with a comfortable equanimity, and I have only to look outside my front door to see a knotty, 50-year-old juniper that has grown up with my youngest child.

Extension of ourselves...

Home for long-standing inhabitants is an extension of ourselves into the surroundings as well. How vital are the marshlands circling our bay communities! And we don’t have to go far to watch seagulls fight over bits of food.

Fewer and farther in between...

Am I enjoying an over-simplified soliloquy? Perhaps…maybe just passing a little time, but maybe I am remembering and noticing a few images that change only gradually over time, images and treasured enclosures that I count on during times of increasing instability in a greater world that often threatens. These grow fewer and farther in between.

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