Thoughts about Home

I have had an amazing and unique opportunity this summer to spend some time in many of the places that I, in my life, have called home. Being in the highly charged and transitional place I am, this has brought about in me many different thoughts and emotions.

From arriving in the US, jet-lagged and mildly culture-shocked, I began to realize how much Switzerland was now "home." The first phase of this trip was spent making these comparisons, and missing what has come to represent "home" there. Then I started to settle, and meet people, and revel in the familiarity of my own social culture.

My mom came to meet me in Cleveland, and this began the marathon family and friend portion of my summer. Family. In this phase of my life, family has become very important to me. My visits with my parents and my family held for me wonderful support and love. I have seen friends, and been embraced after long absence and have laughed with them with joyous familiarity. I have held my nieces in my arms, and had long talks with my brother.

I come away from this thinking about home, about the pieces that make up that deep feeling of peace and happiness when you are truly home. I have felt that at various times this summer, and in many varied situations. In the training this summer we talked at length about the kind of bond one forms with the place where you grew up, that you are somehow intrinsically linked with the actual physical geography of that place. I agree with that. I felt that when I was boating with my Dad at the lake where our family spent our summers when I was growing up. My soul is deep in that water and in those rocky cliffs. But I think that we form those same kind of imprintations on other significant places, and on significant people.

I do not know at this point where home will end up for me. This summer I realized that so many things in the US are "home" to me, but they are mainly based in my past. Now many things about Zurich are home, but it is still and always will be a foreign place. I am balanced precariously between. What I carry back with me from this summer is the knowledge that home is a collection; people, places, events, times...all the memories, experiences and connections that come together to create and environment that supports us at our deepest core self.