At the moment, millions of people have had to flee their own countries to find safety and the chance of a peaceful existence for themselves and their loved ones. One of the many countries people have sought refuge in, and still do, is Sweden.
Sweden, one of the Scandinavian countries, nestled in between Norway and Finland. Not a very large country, comparatively speaking, but a country rich in culture and many parts of the country, in my view, offer extraordinarily beautiful nature to behold.
What one may consider beautiful is of course highly subjective, and varies from person to person, but at the moment the heat and humidity here in Australia has me longing for, and missing, snow, cold winds, and fresh, crisp air to breathe.
I left Sweden a long time ago, but I didn't leave because I had to, or because there were threats to my life, or bombs falling from the skies, etc. I came to Australia to visit my family who had immigrated to Australia and somehow........ I ended up staying.
I was not "fed up" with Sweden, I was not having a "Sea-change", but I did fall in love with the golden beaches, the blue, blue, waters, the palm trees and the very friendly people I met.
The thing with leaving a country behind to begin a new life in another, is that it is not easy, nor simple, rather, it is quite complex and often an emotional roller-coaster ride.
For many of us it means learning a new language, new customs, new cultures, new traditions, new values and ethics, adapting to a new climate, finding ways of befriending new people, etc.etc. it is a steep learning process with many hurdles to overcome.
For those of us who have had to leave our own countries in order to survive, it is even harder. Somehow the longing for "home" although it may dissipate, more often than not, never goes away.
From our earliest days as infants, we create a sense of our place in the world/our home, and that sense is about safety and security, and from those early experiences we form our most basic "truths" about ourselves and the world around us, suggests those in the know.
This longing for "home" is a common human experience and one that often involves a "mind-space" rather than an actual physical space. Some examples: "When I met her/him, I felt like I was coming home".......When I heard that music, I felt like I was coming home......First bite I took, and I felt like I was home......... The smell made me feel like I was home... etc.etc.
(Years ago I recorded an album here in Australia titled "My home is in my Heart" and the idea for the title came from a realization that the heart is the only "space" large enough to have numerous homes.)
For those of us fortunate enough to have been born into safe, loving, and secure homes, home means a place of safety, security, love and inclusion, but there are people who are born into circumstances in which home means the very opposite, and the consequences of such are many and varied, and can often leave both physical and emotional scars for life.
Even if we leave "home" for whatever reason, I believe that the need for "home" is so strong in all of us that the minute we leave one home, we will begin to search for a new one: a sanctuary for body, mind and soul.
Although I call Australia home nowadays, sometimes I still miss Sweden, as I am sure many others from other countries living here sometimes also miss their countries of birth, and that in my view is okay. It is quite possible to embrace and love one country while simultaneously feeling the same way about another, just like it is possible to love all one's children equally. I love the seasons in Sweden with all the changing colours, the red-painted cottages, the golden coloured wheat and mustard fields, the stark colours of the north of the country, the deep impenetrable pine forests, the cold blue lakes, the glittering archipelago, Stockholm and all her amazing islands, the rattle of birch leaves in summer, the candles in the windows at winter time, the sailboats on the lakes in summer, the smell of burning leaves in autumn, and the lilies of the valley in spring.
But I also love the purple flowers on the jacaranda trees, the vermilion flowers on the flame tree, the smooth and golden sand on the beaches, the oceans surrounding the whole of Australia, the many amazing and unique creatures on land, in water, and in the air, the easy-going-ness of the aussies, and their wicked sense of humour.
If ones home is in ones heart, then why not try to make it spacious enough to include many people, many places, artworks of many kinds, and "bits" from many cultures?
Home is where love rules without limits.
“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
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