Just Around the Next Bend: Home, Sweet Home. Where is That Exactly?

A funny thing happened on day sixteen of our seventeen day Italy trip. I was thinking how nice it would be to get home and sleep in my own bed and play with CoCo and visit the zoo and do all those other things that I love to do. And then I realized that the day will come when I don't have a home to go home to. Oh, I will have houses to visit and stay in, but not my own home. So it got me to thinking: what does it mean to "be at home"?

I have lived in eleven houses in my 63 years and my present house I have lived in for 40 of those years. I have loved being in this old house. This is where Andy grew up. And where I have loved six dogs, 3 gerbils and 2 African clawed frogs. A house I have decorated for Christmas 40 times and have enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal for most of those 40 years (other Thanksgivings were spent in Liberal, Kansas at my parents' house).

But I am planning to sell this old house and move to France where I will live in other people's houses. Many of you think I'm crazy, others think I'm brave. Perhaps both are apt descriptions!

There are many cliches and expressions about "home" other than the one in the title: "Home is Where you Hang Your Hat", "Home, Home on the Range" (I had to throw that one in there!). I guess the one I like the most is "Home IS Where the Heart IS." This is the one I can attest to. This is the one that I know to be true for me. The question is can my heart be in someone else's house?

What means "home" to you? For some it is the actual house because it holds many memories. For some it may be tangible items that they can look at everyday and take pleasure and comfort in seeing. For some it's the people in the house. Can you be "at home" without a house, per say? I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out.

Having visited numerous prehistoric sights in southwest France (there are many of them), I think about early man. I wonder what meant "home" to him/her. They most likely did not have a permanent dwelling, but would have followed the food source. I can imagine the hunter coming back from a quest and looking forward to a fire with food on it and his family near by. Comfort, protection, affection. Maybe that's all that's needed.

Do I love my old house? Yes, but it is just a house. Memories will stay with me forever and I will take some mementos with me on my house sitting ventures. And since I'll have CoCo with me that will feel like home. I love the idea of experiencing other homes and seeing what feels like home in another culture. I'm excited by it more than anything else. I realize how different it will be. I'm happy that I have made some friends in that area of France, both through travels and also through the magic of social media. So I won't feel entirely alone in a new place.

By house sitting I will be able to get that experience of living in another country without the huge financial risk of buying a place and then not knowing about the utilities, the septic tank, the banking system, the taxes, etc. It will give me a chance to get familiar with how things work before I decide on buying a house and creating a new home in France. It will give me a chance to explore different regions. To me it makes sense.

I also realize that after a few years of living in France (in other people's houses) I may decide that I have had enough of that adventure and will come back to the States. But I also may decide that house sitting is a pretty good deal and perhaps I'll want to live in other countries as well while I'm still young enough and healthy enough to enjoy the adventure.

I always feel at home in France: the more leisurely lifestyle with 2 hour lunches appeals to me, the beautiful countryside, the feeling of belonging to something so very old and historic where people take pride in their families and not in what they wear or drive or how much stuff they own. It feels more like the US felt to me 50 years ago. I look forward to visiting the open air markets everyday and finding out what's in season and how to prepare certain dishes. I hope to house sit at places with animals and gardens as I find a lot of joy in those aspects of "home".

I can assure all of you who are worried about me that I will be fine living in France. I will be happy without a house and all the stuff that goes in it. I will happy to not have a mortgage, to not pay homeowners insurance, to not worry about the roof or the furnace or the bills. There will be a sense of freedom that I am certainly looking forward to. "Footloose and Fancy Free" - that will be me and CoCo! And just thinking about what's around that next bend thrills me!

And I invite you to join me on this journey - either through this blog or come and visit me in France and explore those bends with me. It will be an adventure without a house to call my own, but I have no doubt that I can "feel at home" in France.