The Blog
Where can we truly find home?
By Vadrine Boullé
Home. When I say that word, what do you feel? Who do you see? Where do you go?
In the wave of a global pandemic that shook the very core of Mother Earth and her people, so many of us were faced with questioning where we wanted to be when shit hit the fan.
When airlines were selling their last tickets, we rushed to the places and people that we knew we wanted to be with when things went south – we went home. Those of us who could of course, others were not so lucky.
One definition of the word home, refers to the verb of ‘returning by instinct to a territory after leaving it’ – by instinct.
So, maybe home is not just a place where we rest our heads at night, maybe it’s the instinctual feeling of knowing we belong, of safety and of comfort.
As children and now as adults, many of us have experienced the comfort of being able to pin a location on ‘home’. It’s a place we go to, where we were born, where we were raised or where we chose to live. But it’s also a feeling. It’s the feeling of love and that word itself can take any shape or form.
It’s the sigh that escapes when your head hits the pillow or a pair of arms are wrapped around you. It’s the smells of the kitchen and the sound of belly aching laughter. It’s the paw of a pet, the crinkle of the fireplace or the rush of the ocean against the beach.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case for so many people. Wars, natural disasters, man made disasters, broken families and unfair prejudices, have meant that to some, the word home brings painful thoughts.
Thoughts of lives that once were, of houses blown away beneath their feet, of loved ones lost and basic rights being fought for. Thoughts of homes where blood family didn’t mean anything, where pain was plenty and love was conditional.
As a young woman now, I question the concept of home more than ever. Yes, to me it’s still that physical place where the tropical birds sing, mama’s footsteps resonate in the kitchen and father’s whistling can be heard in the garden.
But home is also halfway across the world, in the arms of my love who waits for us to be together again. Home is walking barefoot through lush rainforests and it’s deep in the blue depths of the oceans. Home is everywhere I go that feels right.
It’s not in things, it’s not jobs or money or cars or houses. It’s not the material world we’ve created, but rather, it’s made up of the layers that we’ve covered with the ‘things’.
Under all the infrastructure, the greedy consumerism, the polluted skies and comparison culture, lies the world that exists in our fantasies. The world where we all belong somewhere, where we’re all treated the same and where our children can live in freedom.
A world where everyone is always home.
It’s us. It’s you and me and them. We are home wherever we are on this planet, because we belong here. We all belong right here. Home is around us and within us.
Despite the colour of our skin, the names we were given at birth or the beliefs and cultures we’ve inherited, we can walk the many mountains and plateaus of this earth and still always be at home. And when we realise that, maybe then we can all truly be free.
(Vadrine Boullé (aka Vanilla Vadz) is a blogger, copywriter and WordPress web designer for creative and community driven businesses. Born and raised in the Seychelles islands, Vadrine completed a law degree in London, after which she decided to pursue her passion for writing and creative living)