Hello dear Home!

Tucked In by Gina Barlean

Even now after so many years when I close my eyes, the enchantment of the first home I knew and loved comes into view. Follow the yellow brick road and you’ll see a small, brick farm house with homemade lace curtains that seem to blink hello. Hello dear home! I spent countless hours in a storybook red and white striped barn with a magical playground hayloft. In the summer, deep blue and purple petunias framed the stone front porch where, in early mornings, I would sit and watch the sunrise. Oh, how the translucent rays, so radiant in their soft pink color, were transfixing! And, there I would begin to drift away dreaming of such things as wild horses and dancing cottonwoods. Cock-a-doodle-do! Cock-a-doodle-do! A friendly greeting from our leghorn rooster would stir me and I would slip back to my bedroom into my special place, and write.

Living in the world.

A warm honeyed glow still spreads through my body when I remember that home. It was a place where all the threads of what I embodied were tied up with a blue ribbon. A place where I was embraced and mostly understood. How much did a girl of ten really know about living in the world? Yes, I knew family love, the small and big joys of a pony nearby, an oriole’s sweet song outside my window. But sometimes I felt small in the big world.

Back then, any time I would feel adrift, I’d ask my father to light a bonfire and we’d huddle around the warmth sharing family stories that uplifted me, gave me courage and hope on how to take the next step forward. I needed to hear those legacy stories, how brave and, sometimes heroic, my grandparents and extended family were. I know how they struggled—I saw my grandfather’s gnarled hands—and, yet, they somehow held on to what mattered.

Finding home again.

Today I feel a renewed sense of hope and promise knowing that, soon, the broken heart of the world will be mended. And we’ll be safe and well again. The world will be defined in a kinder way, rotating in an orbit of healing and recovery. When promises for better and healthier communities will evolve and folks will come together and find their places with each other. When bonfires will be lit and we’ll all be gathered sitting close, watching the flames, sharing stories.

To me, it will feel like hello dear home! It will be one of those illuminating sunrises from long ago. The radiant light from scientists, healthcare workers and others will be transfixing and I’ll be able to dream. All the amazing abundance and charity the world has to offer—they will rise again. —Becky Breed.

Writing/Creativity Exercise:

1. Read “I Come Home Wanting to Touch Everyone” by Stephen Dunn. Create a list of ten words that describe what your home or a favorite place means to you. If you’d rather, create a home of your dreams. What would it feel and look like? Or, write a letter to your favorite place highlighting what you miss. Read “Letter to N.Y.” by Elizabeth Bishop.
2. Try experimenting with a different medium than you usually use. If you don’t paint, try your hand with water colors or acrylic. Or, consider creating a collage of words and images using letters and cutouts depicting home from magazines and newspapers. Write.
3. Now create. Make it special. Make it true.

For more information about Writing in Community and The Writing and Creative Life, see http://www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.