Week 7: Going Home

[adoptedwriter]

 Week 7: Going Home

 

I think during the last season the topic of Hiraeth was offered up.  I was out of the official contest by that point and slacked on doing a Home Game entry since I think it was right around the time when I brought my mom back to Ohio and I was too preoccupied. Hiraeth is a concept that can be equated to ‘going home’. It’s a tremendous longing for a place.  

 

Hiraeth

 

Have you ever longed for a place to visit or live in but you’ve never actually seen?  It’s more that just a bucket list goal of wanting to see the Eiffel Tower or the Grand Canyon. It’s sometimes a longing for a certain region or part of the country/world you have a fascination for and there is no logical explanation for why you feel this way.  Hiraeth is a Welsh word for longing for a thing or a place that feels like home. In all the studying I’ve done over the years, Hiraeth is a phenomenon among many adopted people, especially those from closed adoptions, where our heritages and birth cultures are unknown. It’s quite a moment of enlightenment and affirmation if we are fortunate enough to find our back story and realize that parts took place in the land we’ve had a deep curiosity about and yearning to see but we’ve never known why. 

 

If the people in our present lives have no interest or actual connection to the place we’ve fancied, it’s may be difficult to feel supported or understood if we share about it.  It might be expensive to make an in-person visit to your dreamed-about destination. Still, pining for a particular place is a real thing for some (adopted) people.  You may try to look up your desired location and gaze at maps or photos. You might want to find out if anyone famous that you admire came from there. You might want to explore the culture of the people who live there now or once lived there decades or centuries ago.  

 

Sometimes I wonder if Hiraeth isn’t also a state of mind.  For me it’s more about the people than the place, although, in spite of the messed up weather patterns my home town has, I do love living in Cincinnati. I have lots of places I like to visit and others that strike my curiosity, I want and choose to live where I do.  Even when I lived in Florida for three years, I wanted to come back home. My people are here.  I have some people in other towns too, but this is my place. I don’t have to go home.

I’m already there.  

Comments

[erulissedances]

I've never really wanted to visit the place of my birth. There are other places in the world that have a much stronger call to me, including the cities of my adoptive parents' birth. But no, I've never wanted to dive down into the rabbit hole of my own.

- Erulisse (one L)