Home is where the hearth is

Today I did another of the immensely enjoyable Glasgow Women's Library/Open Book sessions. We started out listing out words that came to mind with the prompts: Live and Bury. It's always interesting what emerges. There was then a reading of the poem Home by Edgar Albert Guest (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44313/home-56d2235c059bf). It was thought provoking. We were then asked to write a few lines on the theme: To make a house a home...

For what it's worth here are my few lines:
 
To make a house a home...

Paint the walls with memories:
hang photographs of the people that you love
the places you remember.
 
Treasure the small things:
a tiny vase with a chip, a garish souvenir,
a tattered book with a broke spine.
 
Recline on the old sofa,
cocoon yourself in your family,
cuddle the cat and bury your face in her fur.
 
Warm yourself by the fire,
sit by the glowing embers
and let the day recede.

These are the things that money cannot buy,
the things that really matter,
the memories you will come back to, time and time again.

It was an interesting exercise and it definitely made me look at the world a bit differently. There was some brilliant writing from the other participants. This was my third session and I feel I am getting to know them a little. It's wonderful to see things though others' eyes.


But I couldn't help but think about the millions of displaced people in Ukraine without a home. Even if my conclusion was that you don't need possessions to make a house a home you still need somewhere to be safe and comfortable with your loved ones and that must seem a long way off for so many Ukrainian people. The recently revealed atrocities make me sick to my stomach.

On a brighter note the photograph is Sky revealing that she is so addicted to Dreamies that she is prepared to sit on her hind legs for them.