You Can’t Go Home Again

Not exactly.

There’s a saying that comes from the country where I was born.

Hiraeth — a longing for a time or place that can never be returned to.

It becomes more relevant every year.

Homesickness is a desire for familiarity

Research says it’s less about missing the latitude and longitude of your hometown and more about the connections and creature comforts your brain has committed to memory.

Visiting home becomes more about capturing those tastes, smells and feelings and less about where I am on a map. After all we are hurtling through the universe and, depending on your thoughts about space-time, Hiraeth could hold even more significance.

The tastes, the smells, the feelings — they’re all still here. Unfortunately upon encountering them, I find myself transported in memory to the original situations from years prior. There is no real-time experience that satiates this. Hiraeth. You can’t go home again.