At home in the world

 1.  Life on the Rocks.  One night Jeff and Ben and I planned a trip and hung out on Wilmette beach.  Gilson park?  I recall sitting on some large rocks and being very comfortable, reclining on some arrangement of rocks that supported me.  It felt like I had "found my place" and could sit there forever.  There was a sense of pleasantness and ease and contentment.  I look back at that feeling as something worthwhile.  I recall, in another occasion, the day after a trip, driving back to Champaign, and feeling the rightness of the late-fall colors.  Lots of different khaki colors in the landscape.  I felt -- deep in my bones -- the rightness of it, the appreciation of it.  There was no typical rush to get done with the car trip, no looking forward to the end of the "commute," just being at home.

2.  Home Places.  Where are the places that you feel at peace? at ease? at home?  

3.  Home Activities.  Where are the activities that help you feel nourished?  healthy, light, vital, alive, nurtured, sustained, aupple, agile, invigorated? recharged? charging?  Where are the settings that you feel creative? 

4.  Relationships. In what relationships do you feel needed, wanted, trusted, liked, appreciated, cherished?  Who do you, yourself, want, trust, like cherish?  How do you show it?  

5.  Claiming things.  Ice Age Trail through hiker "claims" the outdoors for blacks.  Not being afraid, taking up space, stamping them with your presence, usage.  This early blog post talks about "claiming" things.  Wabi Sabi is about claiming used things, often handmade things.  The first half of the suburban adulthood (for dudes) seems to be attempts to lay claim to activities, consumer products to provide a sense of "relaxation" (which might or might not be the same as "being at home"):  TVs, cigars, cocktails, craft beers...  

6.  The hand-chosen life.  The opposite of "claiming" is "renouncing" or "foreswearing."  The hand-chosen life is the result of claiming certain things and renouncing others.  Yes to gardening (and eating things that you helped grow) or baking (eating things that you leavened or fermented).  No to consuming cigars, animals, sitcoms, violent TV, whatever.  Often it means doing these things in opposition to what society seems to be correct for you (like black lesbians through hiking the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin).