Homecoming

I try not to make my posts here commercial, but today the boundaries between my personal life and professional life are feeling blurred.  That’s not uncommon.  As someone whose love of art led me to running the company I’ve been at the helm of for eight years, I often spend off-work time at art-related events.

Nonetheless, in a far more personal way, my two worlds are colliding and combining this week.  As Artful Home is currently showing a collection of artwork based on the theme of “Home”, I am feeling such an intense longing for home I can taste it.

What is home?  Is it a place?  Is it people?  Is it a structure?  Is it tangible?  I believe it is all of the above and I miss it.  I’ve been gone from home and from my husband for 12 days now and the longing for both is deep, something like an ache.  As someone who has chosen a life with nonstop travel, a life with tremendous perks and benefits, an exciting and varied life, I don’t resent this.  But I ache.

Yesterday, a gorgeous, sunny, hallelujah-kind-of  day had so many aspects of joy to it.  The sight of a farmer’s market directly across from my hotel in the park brought immediate pleasure to my spirits. I’m a sucker for farmer’s markets throughout the world, and this one with its plump tomatoes and bursting pastries made me feel right at “home”.  A delicious bike-ride along the lake after a hard day of work brought equal pleasure with its familiarity, its beauty, its great-to-be alive aspect.  With those events bookending my day, I didn’t miss home.  Much.

But as I walk through yet another airport and see adults clutching teddy bears, pillows, hands of loved ones, I can’t get home soon enough.  I suspect those travelers are seeking to hang onto a bit of precious “home” as they embark for their destinations.

Kyle Hawk’s sculpture depicting a home with roots below it, roots growing deep in spite of the shelf below the house, feels just right to me now.  My roots are deep, growing deeper, even if I am not physically home to tend them.  Let my flight get me home in time.