Thursday 11 March 2010

Grow


Growth happens in the strangest of places.
I look at myself living life in a foreign place, slightly misplaced and still utterly lost. Home is such a strange concept. Is it around you, or within you?

I may not have 'rooted' yet, but I am definitely 'growing'

11 comments:

  1. I think that the concept of home is within you. You can feel right at home anywhere on earth, if you feel fine with yourself & with the ones who live with you & around you. This said, I have never lived in a foreign country & your experience sounds always so amazing to me, specially with the barrier of the language. You know you have all my admiration concerning this, right ?
    For having moved way too many times these last ten years, I made a point of making my nest every time where I lived & making these places my home, a place I feel great to live in, more particularly when living/staying at home like me.
    xoxoxo have a sweet day, my friend

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  2. I totally understand you, having moved around a bit myself. Hope you are able to make the place where you live now, your 'home' as much as possible! :)

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  3. feather that nest... surround yourself with things & people you love, so you will have that homey feeling.

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  4. I think I know what you mean. I live in the Netherlands already more than eight years, I do speak Dutch "steeds beter", but I miss something. Language is not so much of a problem, it is more difficult to make good relationships with locals. I appreciate a lot that I have a lot of Polish friends so I'm not very homesick. Fortunately, the group of our Dutch friends is growing so there is a chance that we will fee here even better. In general I think that the Netherlands is a perfect country for foreigners.

    BTW I love the picture!

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  5. i understand your feeling of being "misplaced".....i felt the same way when i lived in brussels. i loved living there, but i never quite felt a part of the culture. and oddly enough, i would move back there tomorrow if i could....i grew more there than i ever would have here at home!! i loved discovering things in belgium that i took for granted here in america! you'll put down roots when you're ready......
    p.s. you always take the most beautiful photos! xox, :))

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  6. Home is not a geographical place. It is a place in your heart. Once you feel at home in your heart you will feel at home anywhere in the universe. :)

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  7. Thank you so much for your comments. I can relate ever so much with every one. I am usually very good at fitting into my surroundings, easy going, but for some odd reason I am 'missing' something. Perhaps I am just lonely sometimes.

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  8. Hallo!

    I moved around so much over the past 8 years (Brussels to Amsterdam, to Gent, to a house by the beach, to Brussels again, to Italy to be with my love... where I've already moved house three times (in the last 18 months)... and just when I thought I had found 'home', F. brought up the subjct of moving to a different region altogether...) So I'm a specialist when it comes to creating the feeling of 'home' on rather short notice...
    I guess for me 'home' is where I feel good. Where I need to go to be at ease... and that can be a lot of places.
    Which doesn't mean I'm not 'misplaced'. In a lot of ways you are, when living in a foreign country. But I find that that sense of being misplaced can actually push you to grow.
    Not having all the safeties and fixed values of being where you've always been, can pull you 'out into the open', where you have to re-event yourself... and for me, often, that's where it gets interesting.

    But I get your point. I also get lonely sometimes.

    ((HUGS!))
    Katrien

    PS. Have I guessed we are almost neighbours? We live about 1 hour away from the Italo-french border... for now. :o)

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  9. I know what you mean.. this is my house/home but this town isn't.. no matter how much my accent has adapted its self from Californian to a vague sort of Derbyshire this town will never be my home. I have lived here for ten years and still feel like an outsider more often then not. I have grown as a person though and have changed and remebered some of the things I had forgotten that made me who I am.I may never totally fit in here but at least I have a place on the interwebs where I can be me and fit in.

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  10. It is definately in me...and sometimes also around me, when I make the things around me part of the "within me".

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  11. Thank you so much for your comments. It really helps to know I am not really alone in feeling like this. I appreciate your kind words more than I can say x

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Thanks ever so much for sharing your thoughts!