When I read how passionately many of us feel about places... whether Oregon, or Florida, Texas or New York, I thought this quote would be appropriate. Edward Abbey said it very well. The following was in the "Writer's Almanac" this morning.
It's the birthday of novelist and essayist
Edward Abbey, (
books by this author) born in Indiana, Pennsylvania (1927).
He wrote
Desert Solitaire (1968) in response to the love he had of the desert.
Desert Solitaire begins: "This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. A houseboat in Kashmir, a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains, a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country, a greasy alley near the Hoboken waterfront, or even, possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender, velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio or Rome - there's no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment."
~Edward Abbey
Home is such a big thing to me. It is not about bricks and sticks. It is about creating a place in which to live out the intimacy of our lives: our families, our passions, our day to day habits... It is where our hearts are, whether we are actually there or not. I think most of us have a sense of where Home is - or was, or yet will be.
I moved a lot in my life, and my own journey "home" took many more years than I would have thought. My passion is helping others home. It is a matter of heart.
So, Happy Birthday Edward!
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Happy Birthday, Edward Abbey, author!
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