I spent the first two decades of my life reading.
I spent the next two decades wandering, having the adventures I had read about.
For the next two decades, I plan to return to reading.
Should the universe grant me two decades after that, maybe by then I will finally have something worth saying, and write.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
HOME
I grew up in a place where I was regularly reminded that nothing was actually “mine” – not the clothes on my back, not the food I ate, not the bed I slept in, not the books I read.
Not the dog, not the TV, not the very ground I walked on.
Nothing.
When I was at college I changed off campus apartments every year – a habit I continued for at least a decade after graduation.
I sublet, crashed in basements or closets, or agreed to short term leases.
I never settled in anywhere.
I moved so often that I decided to make moving easy by limiting my belongings to one duffle bag (a large one at that).
I was somewhere around the age of 30 and I still owned nothing. I told myself it was all part of my Zen plan to have as small an impact as possible on the world. I was a vagabond, a wanderer following the whim of the moment. I gathered stories the way other people gathered tchotchkes.
Everything changed when I decided to fulfill my lifelong dream of owning a dog.
When Lola arrived, I had already lived in my apartment on Clinton Avenue for 4 years and hadn’t hung anything on the walls. The kitchen cabinets were empty. I used my apartment as a place to sleep, even though there wasn’t an actual bed – just a ragged couch.
Lola, for the first time in my life, gave me a reason to want to go back to my apartment after work every day.
And that was the beginning of me knowing what it meant to have a home.
Lola and I have been together for 8 ½ years now. I won’t say I “own” her as it is more likely the other way around. It took me a long time to get there, but now there is furniture in my home, and the cupboards are full of coca and spices. Now there is art on all the walls, and more throw pillows than necessary.
I spend all day, every day, looking forward to coming home.
My family has grown over the years, Dylan, my partner; our two cats, Jack & Elvis; and – of course – my anchor, my horcrux, Lola.
Home is where my family is, and there is no place I’d rather be.
DISCLAIMER: This bout of sentimentality was triggered by my friend, Arnold, linking his FaceBook page to a 4 ½ minute animated technolounge remix of The Wizard of Oz, titled Mellow Brick Road (really!).
Not the dog, not the TV, not the very ground I walked on.
Nothing.
When I was at college I changed off campus apartments every year – a habit I continued for at least a decade after graduation.
I sublet, crashed in basements or closets, or agreed to short term leases.
I never settled in anywhere.
I moved so often that I decided to make moving easy by limiting my belongings to one duffle bag (a large one at that).
I was somewhere around the age of 30 and I still owned nothing. I told myself it was all part of my Zen plan to have as small an impact as possible on the world. I was a vagabond, a wanderer following the whim of the moment. I gathered stories the way other people gathered tchotchkes.
Everything changed when I decided to fulfill my lifelong dream of owning a dog.
When Lola arrived, I had already lived in my apartment on Clinton Avenue for 4 years and hadn’t hung anything on the walls. The kitchen cabinets were empty. I used my apartment as a place to sleep, even though there wasn’t an actual bed – just a ragged couch.
Lola, for the first time in my life, gave me a reason to want to go back to my apartment after work every day.
And that was the beginning of me knowing what it meant to have a home.
Lola and I have been together for 8 ½ years now. I won’t say I “own” her as it is more likely the other way around. It took me a long time to get there, but now there is furniture in my home, and the cupboards are full of coca and spices. Now there is art on all the walls, and more throw pillows than necessary.
I spend all day, every day, looking forward to coming home.
My family has grown over the years, Dylan, my partner; our two cats, Jack & Elvis; and – of course – my anchor, my horcrux, Lola.
Home is where my family is, and there is no place I’d rather be.
DISCLAIMER: This bout of sentimentality was triggered by my friend, Arnold, linking his FaceBook page to a 4 ½ minute animated technolounge remix of The Wizard of Oz, titled Mellow Brick Road (really!).
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