Thursday, February 3, 2022

A Secret Place, A Home


 Walking with a friend not to long ago I found this secret place in the tree. As a young child I loved finding secret places and this one would be high on my list of places to hide and dream. I would imagine it was the home of trolls or maybe even a ladybug family. I had a wild imagination playing by myself.
 
This week I received the Spring issue of Victoria magazine. Do you receive Victoria in the mail? I have followed along for a long time. Each issue is like a mini-vacation or escape. When I was reading it I found the question "Reflecting on all of the abodes where you have lived, which house truly holds your heart?"
 
Secret places of girlhood dreams definitely hold my heart. I had an adventurous heart and  traveled alone to imaginary worlds. Most often it was when my mom, sister, and I lived with my grandpa. A time when I was free to run, as long as I was home for dinner or when it got dark. There were friends in the neighborhood too and we could be found in the surrounding area playing hide & seek, softball, roller skating, or riding bikes. When the milkman came by on a hot summers day he would let us hop in his truck with chunks of ice and ride a couple blocks while sucking on pieces of ice.
 
The picture above is me on the left with two cousins and my sister while standing in front of my grandpa's house. There was an apartment above the garage in the background and I would dream of moving in there to live, it was like a tree house.
So I think it isn't so much about a particular abode, but about how it makes us feel. For me it was the freedom of adventure and friendships, a time to dream.
 
Now it is about just sitting on my back steps with a good cup of tea,
observing the day, and dreaming.
 
Do you have a house or place that holds your heart?
 
Happy weekend, dear friends?

1 comment:

Jeanie said...

I love that perspective -- less about the place proper than the place it holds in your heart. Well, for me it's the cottage, as you might expect -- the time and place where the only child had siblings (cousins) for three months of the year and time was so carefree. I remember the kind of shock I had when sitting in the sun with my cousin David the summer we'd graduated from college. I'd go on to graduate school, he had a job lined up for the fall and he said, "We're never going to have it like this again." He was right. Well, almost. I sort of have it now so many decades later, but not the way it was then.