“So, where’s home for you?”
Simple question, right?
My mind freezes and then starts to search frantically for
some sort of recognition.
“I’m sorry could you repeat the question please?”
“Where’s home?”
“Ah yes, and what exactly is your precise definition of home,
so that I may answer your question in the appropriate manner?”
The concept of home is a rather hard one for me to grasp. I
grew up in a different country from where my family is from and where I was
born. I went to boarding school for ten years and was away from where my
parents lived for about nine months of each of those years. Most recently we
were in PNG for six years then moved to Victoria for nine months and have now
moved to Cairns. It’s all rather confusing really. My ‘family’ is spread over
the world. My parents are in Indonesia, my younger brother lives in Queensland
(same state!) and my older brother is in Switzerland at present.
I’m beginning to realise though, that as weird as I think I
am, I’m really not that unusual. Cairns is a kaleidoscope of people from all
over Australia and the globe. There are so many immigrants and refugees here.
It’s a pretty amazing place.
Our next-door neighbours are a classic example. He is from
Sweden and she is from Japan and their kids are growing up in Australia.
I have always loved Thomas Kinkade paintings of beautiful
houses with glowing lights in the windows, a cottage by the sea; solid, comforting, secure.
So, where is home? For me, home is not a place, home is
where Matt and Edward and Jack are. That’s what I can narrow it down to at the
moment.
Deeper than that, home is a place I have yet to experience.
I catch glimpses of it; in family, in friends, in places I have lived. That
home; is why my heart yearns for a constant in this life of change, a place to
truly belong. Eternity in the hearts of man.
What about you? Where is home?
