Homecoming and homegoing

 I woke up today with an eerily silence in the flat. I was alone. My flatmates are gone and one is homeward-bound. 

There is a force within that compel us to return home, to seek the familiar and comfortable environment called home. It may be a longing for companionship, a return to a refuge, and a trip to memory lane of childhood years. This force is particularly strong during holidays when there is a break from workaday world. There is one place, one group of people we desire to visit and to be with - the place is known as home and the group of people is known as family.

Christmas, Independence, Thanksgiving, New Year, summer vacation, etc., these are the days that we troop to our homes. There is a sense of calling beyond obligation to travel back to our roots, where the sense of belongingness to that certain realm is bringing back the yesteryears. No matter how long we have been absent or away from home, we go back simply because it is there waiting for our homecoming.

Maybe after many years of being separated, the expected strange feeling of disconnect somehow causes us to reconnect with what is readily available that is familiar. Indeed, people grow old, places and surroundings change; the same as we do. We dig on the remembered shared history with the place and its people. Then, slowly things make sense into our consciousness. The place and its people become ours and we become theirs.

Or for some, a regular trip back home may feel routinary and taken for granted. But the sense of solidarity for celebration in a place where memorable events have taken place and with the family that understands our happiness and loneliness is ever present and haunting us when big holidays such as Christmas and New Year's days.

Homecoming is a tradition. It is not an obligation nor expectation from us. It is a willful act of one's heart. Our home is always there waiting for us, within reach, never been away from us. Why not be home this holidays or summer vacation? The warmth of embraces, the lively stories, unending updates and remembrances, the shelter of an old house, and the spirit of family seem to strike a chord in our hearts that we can hardly resist. The force is always upon us. Then, we realize it is we that have been away from where we belong - home.