Blues In Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin says “Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition”. ‘Stay at home’ became an idea of momentary and ambiguous existence. I found comfort outside my balcony, I experienced warm affections without touch, through a wave and or smile through my lens. I smile.
In finding deep appreciation as love surrounds me, and unlearning selfish acts of being self involved, is rewarding. Having the time and break to watch ginger grow as a puppy with my partner, reassured me that “home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark” as explained by Pierce Brown in Golden Son. My Sunshine and Smile keeper near me, I no longer dream of going home, home is my dream in South Africa during the lock down. I wonder.
If my longing to sit under a tree as a tend to my vegetable garden and wanting to pick flowers and herbs from my neighbours garden. I end up cloud watching in hopes of finding myself in this new transition into a new world order, I admire flora in my neighbourhood. I marvel at nature graceful adaptation in its existence and I feel one with the sunrise, birds chirping, grey skies and the winds blowing trees. I acknowledge what Gary Snyder meant when he said “Nature is not a place you visit, but home”.
In the end, as I nourish the creation, the creation nourishes me, as we are united in creation. I am home.