Feeling at Home – Guest post by Giselle Stafford

This is the 13th post of a guest series. We ask friends and colleagues to share with us what the expression to “feel at home” means to them. We believe that to truly enjoy a place, you need to really experience it, to make yourself at home. This means different things for different people, but it is an essential part of our lives, both as travelers and travel professionals. The idea came from a post I published in March and that you can read here.

Home is where your heart is

I’ve been following this wonderful series of guests posts on Gloria’s pages, and thought that everything had been said that I would want to say myself. However…..

Home for me is Umbria, but that is just a generality, the status quo.  I’m here because I love it and choose to be here, but it wasn’t a decision I made on my own.  The choice to be here, or anywhere else has, for the past 16 years,  been a joint decision between me and Mark.  I’d call him my husband – because it’s true, but that doesn’t really begin to cover the relationship we have.

And here is the heart of the choices I have made since we first met. Without Mark, I’m not at home anywhere, I’m not comfortable, not easy in my skin, I can’t settle.  We’re lucky, we don’t spend much time away from each other, which means that where I am, right here and now is home.

For the first time since we’ve known each other we are gathering things for a home of our own – together.  As with a lot of couples who meet a bit later in life, we both had our own places when we met.  Then with an eye to the future adventures we both envisaged,  saw us sell every stick of furniture we jointly owned and buy a camper van.  That was a VERY cosy home for nearly 5 years.  Folks used to say – FIVE years?  And you still LIKE each other? Hell yeah! We had a fantastic time in our 6 metre camper van living in Umbria & Le Marche,  travelling to Greece and touring the Peloponnese!  Who wouldn’t want to have an ever changing view from your living room?  Don’t like it?  Drive somewhere else!

So now, in our new house, we are, together, making it into our home – and it’s a marvellous feeling.  But really?  If you want to get soppy about it, as long as I can be enfolded in his arms after a long tiring day, as long as we can make each other laugh so hard we cry – with the subsequent aftershocks of uncontrollable giggles afterwards, as long as we can sit peacefully together sharing some wine, watching the sunset turning Trevi pink, as long as we keep sharing the same dreams, the same goals in life – then I’m centred, I’m home.