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MENTAL HEALTH
Home: Where Memory Meets Meaning
We can always return to ourselves.
This humble home stands before me in a photograph from the early 1970s, its siding pristine against a winter-bright sky. Bare trees reach their branches upward, and an old ‘46 Ford convertible sits in the driveway — a scene frozen in time before I was born. Yet this modest ranch-style home would become the backdrop for 4+ decades of my life’s story…
The Architecture of Memory
We often speak of houses in terms of square footage, bedroom count, and market value. But a home? A home is measured in the depth of memories its walls contain; good and bad. This particular home, purchased by my parents in the 1960s, has witnessed over half a century of one family’s adventure with laughter, tears, and countless moments shaping who we’ve become.
What strikes me most about this vintage photograph isn’t just how the house has changed over the years (though it has, through numerous remodeling projects and necessary updates), but how I’ve changed when I look at it. Each window in its façade frames a different chapter of my story. The living room where I took my first steps, the bedroom where I weathered adolescent storms, and the kitchen that served as command central for Mom’s mashed potatoes and…