Ry hit an interesting theme that I have been running up against myself in the past couple of years, am I really living at home?
We have lived in this neck of the woods for close to 18 years now (wow), and while it has all the trappings of home (family, a house, dogs, personal activities, friends, etc.) it just doesn’t feel like it should. Maybe because so much of my time is spent on the road? Maybe because so much of the “natural” space is a different kind of woodland than I am accustomed to.
I go to Texas and it feels more like home. I go to Idaho, or Washington (especially Western Oregon and Washington) and something magical happens, and everything seems to click into place.
Hell, I even wound up in a desert in the SW a couple of years ago that I swore I would never return to and it felt more natural for me to standing there in the sun, and the heat than a trip into my downtown office here does.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think in my own little rural / suburban area here I have a comfort zone. Once you get beyond the zone, I feel like I am on the road.
Maybe my mother’s right, I should plan on retiring in Montana. But, in the mean time this is where the kids were born and are growing up, it is their home and where their lives are centered. I can live with that. After all, there are a lot worse places to be.
For me, Ohio never has been or ever will be “home” even though I have made a life here…a much better life over the last year or so. But Western Oregon is still “home” and going back last summer made that very clear to me!
Can’t agree with you more, guys. And I do miss “home” . Have to try to get back there this year.