So good, Silvio. Driving back to my childhood home after my mom downsized and not being able to pull in the driveway and bound up the front steps felt so profoundly strange.
I’ve moved 7 times in the past 5 years (mostly between university houses).
After graduating this year, I find myself without a home. I rotate. Between my moms place, my dads, my cottage, my girlfriends. There’s a certain rootlessness, frustration with not having a home base. But living out of a backpack is also liberating: I’ve realized how little I need.
Thank you, Tommy. Yes, it's a process that happens in stages and ultimately delivers the goods: what's really essential to you, what's important to the core. I understand you're still in your twenties (and this always amazes me given the profoundness of many reflections of yours), so you potentially have a few more layers to shed away. But I guess from your comment you're doing already a great job! :)
It’s funny Silvio, whenever you’re at your parents place I always think, it’s so nice Silvio can still go back to his childhood home. And now I realize I made up that backstory! I love your opening image, I haven’t been back to many places I’ve lived, but I love this image of both parts of you looking in and out the house. Beautiful reflection!
Thank you so much, Michelle! That fantasy of both versions of me years apart looking in and out of the house is a recurring one. And it always makes me think of whether this notion of the existence of many parallel realities, all going on simultaneously starting at different times, actually has any truth to it. Maybe our lives are like movies starting at different points of the same journey, all playing at the same time in different projection rooms. Who knows.
Beautiful, Silvio. As you well know, your pieces always resonate with me for different reasons, and in this case although your upbringing is very different from mine (which had a lot of physical stability), we arrive to the same conclusions: I too live lightly of possessions.
Reading how well articulated your arriving to the conclusion is, makes me ponder a lot and understand myself better. And also gives me the need to burn and get rid of even more things haha.
Loved many parts, and this one I found especially beautiful: "A place where superfluousness doesn’t exist, where everything is indispensable. Where memories are lazy and need stuff in order to exist."
Also feeling lighter after reading this piece on being lighter, on having everything in tis right place.
Thank you, Oscar! And thank you for suggesting the title of this piece! It was perfect. So glad this resonates and makes you think. And "feeling lighter after reading this piece on being lighter, on having everything in its right place", sounds awesome!
My favorite part of this essay was the scene you depicted of looking back at your ex-windows, seeing your old self looking back. : ) Such a storybook and poignant moment, traveling in time through memory. Doesn't everybody do this? This for me is part of the joy of reading your essays. You always seem to describe a shared human habit, way of perceiving and thinking that no one really talks about, but everyone does. I took a tally of my own moves recently and documented 35 moves in 62 years. I'm in complete resonance with you on the elimination process being the greatest joy. A very small part of me envies the "one home for life" idea, but at this point I can't possibly imagine leaving such a home behind for my kids to deal with once I'm gone. I love your image of a nothing but some clothes, a guitar and some books and being good to go. One of my favorite things is to be out on the road with one suitcase, performing at events, self-sufficient and self-contained with few possessions. We just moved again last August, and I told my wife that if we were still here in another year that I wanted to rent a big storage unit, move everything we have out of the house, clean it, and then move back in. Only because it necessitates that review process and forces the issue of traveling lightly. There's nothing like a move to get the energy moving, reset, and prioritize.
I just love the idea of moving out of your current place, put everything in storage, and move back in, Rick. It embodies this notion of getting down to the core of what's really essential. And in finding out, you realize how important are the things that are non visible. Thanks for sharing these thoughts, I always feel we are in synch on so many ideas. And thank you for your nice words about my writing. "You always seem to describe a shared human habit, way of perceiving and thinking that no one really talks about, but everyone does." Once again, your ability to get me surprises me. And the fact that this quality of my writing comes across is very important to me, as that's exactly where I want to go.
So good, Silvio. Driving back to my childhood home after my mom downsized and not being able to pull in the driveway and bound up the front steps felt so profoundly strange.
I’ve moved 7 times in the past 5 years (mostly between university houses).
After graduating this year, I find myself without a home. I rotate. Between my moms place, my dads, my cottage, my girlfriends. There’s a certain rootlessness, frustration with not having a home base. But living out of a backpack is also liberating: I’ve realized how little I need.
Thank you, Tommy. Yes, it's a process that happens in stages and ultimately delivers the goods: what's really essential to you, what's important to the core. I understand you're still in your twenties (and this always amazes me given the profoundness of many reflections of yours), so you potentially have a few more layers to shed away. But I guess from your comment you're doing already a great job! :)
It’s funny Silvio, whenever you’re at your parents place I always think, it’s so nice Silvio can still go back to his childhood home. And now I realize I made up that backstory! I love your opening image, I haven’t been back to many places I’ve lived, but I love this image of both parts of you looking in and out the house. Beautiful reflection!
Thank you so much, Michelle! That fantasy of both versions of me years apart looking in and out of the house is a recurring one. And it always makes me think of whether this notion of the existence of many parallel realities, all going on simultaneously starting at different times, actually has any truth to it. Maybe our lives are like movies starting at different points of the same journey, all playing at the same time in different projection rooms. Who knows.
Beautiful, Silvio. As you well know, your pieces always resonate with me for different reasons, and in this case although your upbringing is very different from mine (which had a lot of physical stability), we arrive to the same conclusions: I too live lightly of possessions.
Reading how well articulated your arriving to the conclusion is, makes me ponder a lot and understand myself better. And also gives me the need to burn and get rid of even more things haha.
Loved many parts, and this one I found especially beautiful: "A place where superfluousness doesn’t exist, where everything is indispensable. Where memories are lazy and need stuff in order to exist."
Also feeling lighter after reading this piece on being lighter, on having everything in tis right place.
Thank you, Oscar! And thank you for suggesting the title of this piece! It was perfect. So glad this resonates and makes you think. And "feeling lighter after reading this piece on being lighter, on having everything in its right place", sounds awesome!
Glad you ended up using it, and it came from you originally. And probably Thom Yorke would be proud of both of us 😏
Beautiful Silvio. I can just imagine that huge family together.
Thank you, Stan. Yes, from what I can remember, it was quite something! :)
My favorite part of this essay was the scene you depicted of looking back at your ex-windows, seeing your old self looking back. : ) Such a storybook and poignant moment, traveling in time through memory. Doesn't everybody do this? This for me is part of the joy of reading your essays. You always seem to describe a shared human habit, way of perceiving and thinking that no one really talks about, but everyone does. I took a tally of my own moves recently and documented 35 moves in 62 years. I'm in complete resonance with you on the elimination process being the greatest joy. A very small part of me envies the "one home for life" idea, but at this point I can't possibly imagine leaving such a home behind for my kids to deal with once I'm gone. I love your image of a nothing but some clothes, a guitar and some books and being good to go. One of my favorite things is to be out on the road with one suitcase, performing at events, self-sufficient and self-contained with few possessions. We just moved again last August, and I told my wife that if we were still here in another year that I wanted to rent a big storage unit, move everything we have out of the house, clean it, and then move back in. Only because it necessitates that review process and forces the issue of traveling lightly. There's nothing like a move to get the energy moving, reset, and prioritize.
I just love the idea of moving out of your current place, put everything in storage, and move back in, Rick. It embodies this notion of getting down to the core of what's really essential. And in finding out, you realize how important are the things that are non visible. Thanks for sharing these thoughts, I always feel we are in synch on so many ideas. And thank you for your nice words about my writing. "You always seem to describe a shared human habit, way of perceiving and thinking that no one really talks about, but everyone does." Once again, your ability to get me surprises me. And the fact that this quality of my writing comes across is very important to me, as that's exactly where I want to go.
Carry on my friend, you are hitting the mark!!
Thank you so much!