Home Again, Home Again

“Where is home?” is perhaps the most profound question life gives us and it’s not just talking about a postal address. As I’ve noted many times in these writings, holding hands in a circle of people about to make some great music is certainly home, no matter where it is in the physical world. Sitting at a piano when the music flows from the fingers is home, no matter who’s piano it is and what room it’s in. Tucked in a chair reading a great book anywhere, anytime, that’s home also. 

 

But there are physical places— in fact, many of them— that carry a special resonance because I’ve lived there and loved there and found some grace and happiness there. Some I visited periodically for a few days every year or so, others I lived in day after day for decades. The list includes my childhood home in New Jersey and nearby Warinanco Park and Watchung Reservation, Antioch College’s Glen Helen Nature Reserve in Ohio, Mt. Baldy Zen Center in the San Gabriel Mountains near L.A., the village of Cheruthuruti in Kerala, India, the Lake Michigan Cottage near Frankfort, the three C’s of California—Cazadero, Calaveras, Calistoga—Salzburg, The San Francisco School Music Room, and of course, San Francisco. 42 years now in this home a half a block from Golden Gate Park (site of many other homes!) and no matter how wonderful my travels, this is the place I love to come back to. 

 

And so I’ve had three lovely days alone in my house, so happy to do my own shopping and cooking, to play my piano again, to walk 6 miles through the Park on a fog-free day. A certain kind of fun to just catch up on business, close out the summer’s courses and prepare for the next round. Bask in a welcome solitude, no accountability to anyone and free to think my own thoughts and follow my own schedule and keep the house clean in the way I like to. 

 

Now my wife is back and that’s fine too. She’s also happy to be back in this home, in this neighborhood, in this city, after seven weeks in her summer Lake Michigan paradise. Ready to re-enter her routines and meet up again with her bike group, her hiking group, her exercise group, her sketching group.

 

For so many years (over 40 each), both of us were putting our shoulders to the wheel to get the school cart rolling again. Now all we need is a fingertip nudge to reclaim our routines and fill our calendars with the Fall’s annual bounty—Opera in the Park, Comedy in the Park, Flower Piano, the SF Jazz Center’s new season, City Arts and Lectures and more. All of it in the best weather San Francisco has to offer (September and October). 

 

Tonight, the new Season of Only Murders in the Building awaits. Bye!