homesweethome --part one

After years on the road, tossed from one shore to another, and at times living without any commitment to any given country or culture, I have lately found myself pondering the idea of settling down.

But it’s not the kind of settling down where one gets a mortgage and a dog but rather it’s about finding a comfortable state of mind.

For one, I don’t think we will ever live in just one place. How could we since everyone in our family has different attachments?

The girls, for instance, still think they are Ticas hailing from the South Caribbean, Matt although being the most adaptable of us is, in his heart of hearts, still mostly American, and I for my part, truly enjoy a handful of European castles around me. Settling down in our case will mean to find a way of living in many places at the same time.

At night, before I fall asleep I like to mind-travel. My imagination creates an image of a place I have known well and I then recreate the sensations that made that particular place so real at the time. Sounds, smells, and even feelings come back to me in their colorful range of hues.

I see the green volcanic slopes, their peeks shrouded in mist. I can smell the rain coming in from the coast on a tropical mid-afternoon and I am back in our home in Costa Rica. A high-pitched twitter of voices rings in my ears. The back patio is filled with life and the children are chasing each other in the yard behind. I wonder whether I need to check on dinner but then decide to linger because I have tired out my Spanish for the day and just want to take in the moment, sniffle the sweetness of the approaching rain. It is that real.

While time moves on mercilessly minds are allowed to linger. Moments of our lives are engraved into the backdrop of our minds just like long gone loves, and so is our notion of home.

Once we have thrown out our anchor and connected, learned the language, followed the local news, made an appearance at the town fair, gathered friends and shared food, a place becomes more than a couple of coordinates.

England will be such a place, I am casting my anchor.