"Home" is a Voice

   


[Photo: Fluffernutter, who gives me "sense of home."]

#Grief#Voice#Friendship#ReflectingonInteriorSenseofHome#BookComing

     I attended an online offering by the author David Kessler this week. He spoke beautifully about what our culture needs when it comes to grief and bereavement. One of the lines I jotted down in my notes was, “we can’t heal what we don’t feel.”

And I thought of my friend J.

She had called me spontaneously the day before to share her sorrow at the loss of my parents — of her parents — it was the same loss for each of us I felt when we connected through the phone speakers. I had started to talk about why I hadn’t called in a long while and she had answered through tears: Oh,that is not what I am thinking about at all. I am so sorry you lost your parents, and I am so sorry I lost my parents.”

And in that expression of feeling I heard a familiar and tender timbre that I hadn’t heard for a long time, and I felt a sense of home within it.

I’ve been trying to unpack for a long time what “home” is when it has nothing to do with real estate and everything to do with how we inhabit our bodies. And here I found a friend’s voice that put me at ease, and didn’t condescend, but only wanted to convey her utter understanding.

*Also posting on Substack. The more places the better! <3 

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