“Our only guide is our homesickness” (Herman Hesse)
Homesick for the life you wish to live.
Are you ever homesick for the life you wish to live?
The life that flows naturally from your desires, convictions, and deep-seated longings. The life you are proud to call your own.
A few years ago, I was walking in town when I noticed a beautiful red flower on the ground; it fell from the bush that was its home for a while. At first I simply let it imprint its beauty into my memory, but I walked by. Some time later the same day I was passing near that place again — the flower was still lying unnoticed on the ground. It allured me with a sense of delight, so I took it.
Did you ever observe a flower in your hands? Its texture, colour, shape, how it bends beneath the touch — as if it knows it is noticed, admired, perhaps even loved. This one that I picked was a beautiful deep red. It went well with my coat while I held it in my hand. And it matched my shoes for they too were red. Flowers communicate a gift of appreciating life. Their beauty invites us into beauty itself. Yet flowers don’t only grow in the gardens of the world, they grow in our souls too.
Let me explain.
When we are inspired with graced moments in a day, a bird chirping, a smile, a surprise by someone we love, unexpected gift that can only come from God, a line from a book we randomly read that got stuck in our mind — each of these do something to our inner being. As if a little bud of a new flower popped up within our soul in our hidden garden. And life seems that much more beautiful, even for a short time. Those are moments of ‘homecoming’.
Eventually, I placed the red flower into my bag and later pressed its petals between the pages of my journal. Years on this memory tells a story of beauty and inspiration. There are times when we too feel we ‘fell of a bush’ — we long for the home we know we are meant to be a part of. I know I do.
Did someone pick YOU up recently and admired you ‘in the palm’ of their hand?
We are made for connection. We are made for belonging. Herman Hesse said that “our only guide is our homesickness”. Homesickness towards each other. I believe there are other guides that navigate our hearts, but this is a primal one. When we know what we long for, what directs our desire for life, when we let it emerge deep from within, then we can follow it like a scent of the most beautiful wildflower that guides us through life. However, occasionally we can glimpse that this ‘something’ is in fact ‘who‘, and we realize that the life that we seek is seeking us — too.
© Iva Beranek
