2016 Photo Challenge- Home.

I have never participated in any of the online challenges that circulate the web.  This is not for any particular reason other than laziness.  Until now…

The Aran Artisan is one of my favorite blogs.  Melissa is a native Mainer (basically from the next town over from us) who moved to Inas Mor, a small island off the coast of Ireland.   They have a homestead and her writing, garden, crafts and wisdom are inspiring.

Her and a few other equally awesome bloggers decided to do a weekly photo challenge for 2016 that sounds so laid back, even I could do it.

The challage is simple, 52 weeks, 52 photo prompts.

I am late to join and so I will begin my attempt at week 7; with the word, Home.

This felt an apt place to begin the endeavor.  My husband and I have been working so hard it seems like most of the time we spend at home is passed asleep- because it’s true.

I am hoping that this challenge will help me regain some badly needed balance in my life.  I need to remember to make room for random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.  So here goes.

Home.

Such a small and simple word.

Recently the word has evoked the feeling of a place I no longer live.  Growing up, the concept of home was so connected to the land where I was born and raised; that after our relocation it was hard to feel anything other than a distance from my ‘Home.’

I wasn’t there anymore.

I have had to redefine what ‘home’ means to me.  Before, I would have said that it is the place where everything you love is accessible to you.  In the absence of this access to the people and places that always made up my ‘happy place,’ I have found a new definition.

It is not a place or structure; it is a sustained moment of peace.   Now, home is the place where I can be nothing other than what I am.  For that reason I picked this photo.

My current definition of home.

Simple, messy and happy.   In these moments I remember why we left all that we knew and journeyed into the unknown.

To find home.

This challenge has already taught me something, what a nice surprise!  I learned that even the most basic things are constantly changing, evolving and fluid.  Truth is individual and dynamic and so our concepts must also be malleable.    I must remember to be grateful for each moment of peace in the company of those I love.

Be well!