What is 'home' to you?
- Charlotte Murphy
- Nov 7, 2017
- 2 min read
homehōm/noun
1.the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.
Seems simple, right? But nailing a definition for "home" isn't so straight forward when you have such a yearning for adventure and live your life globe-hopping with your family.
Expats chose this lifestyle for many reasons, but for me initially it was my desire to explore that took me away. Home became the place I was at any given time... Teaching posts in countries like Korea, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Dubai brought many opportunities to get out and explore. My current 'home', Saudi Arabia has some great advantages, BUT it feels a little more limiting in terms of safe places to visit and freedom to travel. When a friend called recently for volunteers to check out a not-to-far desert location where we could find the beautiful and somewhat rare desert rose, we packed up the vehicle and embraced the opportunity to get off camp!
Although the drive there might not have been the most beautiful (we went through the not so pristine highway and a garbage dump), the dunes did not disappoint. The kids piled out of the cars with shovels and buckets in tow and got to work digging. I got out my camera and enjoyed watching the children unearthing these stunning rock formations ...until I spotted a heard of wandering camels. I'm so glad I went to check them out. They batted their many eyelashes and smiled their crooked toothy grins. They were cool and calm as the kids fed and petted them. One young camel in particular took a liking to me. It was like he was on a catwalk and posed for me for ages. He snuggled into me and followed me like a puppy.
For me, It's these moments of unexpected awe that make me know I'm "home". I guess home is living life to it's fullest, following your heart. Sometimes it's in my garden, watching the light move through the trees, seeing the joy in my kids eyes, and sometimes an encounter in the desert with an unexpected visitor.
This photoshoot lead to a series of camel paintings. I took home sand from the desert and mixed it into my oil paint to create the highly textured surface of rolling dunes. I love to take a little piece of the places I've visited with me.
Comentarios