A Sense of Place – This Old House 2

According to wikipedia, that term has several meanings, a sense of place. I relate it to a feeling of belonging, of being comfortable, contented where you are. While I enjoyed my childhood neighborhood and Staten Island upbringing, I knew from a young age it was not where I was meant to settle. As soon as I was old enough, I hightailed it to where I wanted my roots to take hold… in a more rural setting. The rub in the want for “rural” is that I also couldn’t imagine being too far away from the water. I had family in Connecticut I could live with temporarily so I was very fortunate to land in a good mix of a country setting near shore life. 34 years later, I’m still here… just a half mile down the same road from where I came in for a landing all those years ago. I’ve had no regrets.

I loved reading your comments yesterday, learning a little about you and where you’re from, where you find your sense of place, and in a few cases, where you long to be. It’s clear in many of your answers, you have also found your sense of place, in some instances right where you’ve been all along. It’s a good feeling, a settled feeling, one that helps balance out all the other aspects of a life.

I also find my sense of place in the act of caring, always have. It started with my childhood pets, then an abandoned race horse I adopted and brought with me to CT… Every nickel I could rub together with another back then went to the care and comfort of my horse and gas in my car, let me tell ya. Wasn’t the most sensible thing to do but I managed alright regardless.

Shortly after, we started our family, my husband grew his business and we built a small horse farm – and I’ve been tending family and farm needs ever since, sprinkled with part time jobs and volunteer work, a short stint as an Artisan store owner, and 7 years as editor of our small local news source. I am forever grateful that I was able to raise my children as a stay at home mom. It occurs to me that I could have done more with myself by other people’s standards. I haven’t closed the door on that possibility yet – although being 3/4 deaf makes a few things much more difficult. But what I have been doing, what I do now… well, I feel at home, I feel I’m where I’m supposed to be, I feel productive – and that’s a gift, a real blessing I appreciate whole heartedly, will not allow myself to undervalue or overlook. I’m wishing you the same.

This morning I was reminded of all this as I worked my way through morning chores – Cloud, our rabbit who lives next to the Chickens got a freshly raked yard and was thrilled to be out in it after yesterday’s rain.

Old Max, Below – now 32 years old!… got a good shedding out, too.

Owned by a friend, he has been here with us for 7 years now.

He can no longer chew hay, his teeth ground down to almost nothing.

He gives it the old college try but it inevitably ends up

clumped around him, so we pump him up with three different grains and

grass out in the fields, which sustains the old boy pretty well.

The side porch that we all use most of the time to come and go from has an interesting new development. See the trellis with gate? It’s covered in New Dawn roses now, just a beautiful sight when it blooms. Robins are not the smartest of birds, I’ve concluded over the years. We often find Robin nests in less than desirable places, clearly they are confused by their Sense of place.. or lack thereof. A pair are currently building a nest right in the busy traffic lane here at This Old House.

They are undeterred by our comings and goings from the gate in the center of the trellis, inches from their nest. I’ll keep you posted on their.. tenacity? Stubbornness? Stupidity, but that’s such an unkind word.