Sherri Rosen Publicity Intl, NYC-“Coming Home”-guest blogger, Joan Whitacre
Coming Home
What does this mean for me and for all of us? Coming home, being at home, finding home – these are universal themes of human experience, found In ancient poems and current novels. I feel this is an urgent issue of our time, as our familiar world is being turned upside down and inside out, taking away our feeling at home, in our personal lives, society, and bigger world. Dwindling business and a cancer diagnosis four years ago moved me to give up my home and take to the road. For others it has been the loss of a secure job, a mortgage implosion, the literal destruction of home by fire or flood. I sense many of us are feeling home-less, without a place in the world where we stand and rest securely.
Does coming home mean that we finally settle down, that we feel we’ve found ourselves and can be ourselves? Feeling at home can spring from a love or friend relationship or with our blood family. We can find it with a team or colleagues, or in an environment that feels right. My first real experience of being at home was in the ocean and it remains so. Sometimes this genuine sense of home lasts the rest of our lives, but sometimes after enriching us, it passes.
Still, what is the experience of being at home, what defines it? Yes, there is having all that I need and some of what I want beyond that– adequate, satisfying, appropriate food, clothing, shelter, health, work and social support. But many who have way beyond what they need and all they could ever want still are not at home. There are some who have little and feel like queens, mistresses of their worlds. I feel truly being at home arises from deep within, aside from possessions or place.
What is it, fundamentally, to feel that we have a place in the world, that we can sit, stand, walk and rest securely – so that we can relax, breathe easily, spread out, take up space, take in and give out, love? I truly feel at home when I feel what is alive for me right now, whether uncertain, beautiful, comforting or scary, and I stay open with presence and dignity.
Where do I feel that uncertainty, that comfort or beauty? Right here in my living body – where I experience all that touches me through my muscles, bones, nerves, eyes, ears, and skin. So I am fully at home when I am at peace in my body with whatever I am facing and feeling now, whether in my house or homeless, loved or lonely. This is truly coming home, and no deluge or loss can take it away. Welcome!
Bio: Joan, a pioneer in the mind-body, healing, and movement fields, has been walking the talk of coming home to your living body, your embodied presence, for over forty years. With an M.A. in Movement Sciences and doctoral studies in psychology, Joan is a registered somatic-movement therapist, a certified practitioner of Body-Mind Centering, and a meditation instructor and teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition. She offers private sessions, workshops, and trainings and would love to support you on your journey home. Visit her website: www.embodythejourney.com.
Tags: authors, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, home, Joan Whitacre, publicist nyc, publicity nyc, sherri rosen publicity nyc, spirituality, Whole Women Healing, women
This entry was posted on Friday, January 3rd, 2014 at 6:03 am and is filed under Clients, Friends and Colleagues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 7th, 2014 at 1:03 pm
Joan,
this is a wonderful article.
I think you’ve hit on the fulcrum of this issue.
No matter where you are, that sense of being home, is in you.
Thank you for your efforts on our behalf…
Following a path that relieves suffering in it’s many forms is very exhausting & rewarding work.
Blessings to you & all you do.
Victor
January 7th, 2014 at 1:21 pm
Joan,
Thanks for your thoughts and your insight!
I can say that I am “at home” with my work and my relationships and with my self.
I think it is important that one small action, or word or thought can have immense power. I try to share something about each baby that I am with as they enter this world with the parents and families that are there.
So, thank you for sharing,
janet