Behind the Digital LensMusings of an Amateur Photographer

1st Mar, 2010 Going home

“They” say you can never go home again.  “They” are correct.  Oh sure, you can physically go back to the place that you call home, usually the place you grew up, but it isn’t the same as when you once lived there.  Many of us that have journeyed home after many years away discover that new businesses have sprung up, new restaurants have opened, and many new houses have been built.  Home has changed in that it has progressed forward.  Maybe not in ways that you would like, but it has moved forward and is no longer the place that you remember.  Old buildings are gone, adults you knew growing up have passed away, fields that you once played in are now shopping centers.  Nestled in all of the change is the home you once remembered, only memories for you and history for the “newcomers”.

But even though your hamlet, town, city, metropolis has moved forward and grown, it is really you that has moved on and grown beyond the boundaries of the place you grew up and remember.  Home has now become the place you rest your head each evening, the friends you meet on the street or in your living room, the place you worship, the place you work and shop and make memories.  Sure, you can go back to the place you think of as “home” and rekindle old friendships and revisit old places of haunt, but you must start anew at making this once again home, just as you did when you moved away in the first place.

Home is where the heart is, where you rest your soul, and where you make your memories; memories captured in your mind or captured behind the digital lens.