Old home, it's such a strange phrase. It's not a home that is old in years, but for us, rather our past home. The home we used to live in. The home Dennis lived in for almost his entire adult life. The home that I lived in for the last 8 years with him. The phrase also embodies the location where we used to live in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Old home. We say it all the time now. We started saying it after we moved into our home on the lake. We would accidentally say things like "that came from home" or "back at home..." but our new home was now home. We were instantly in love with our new home – the house, the property, the lake, and ultimately we met and love our neighbors. We didn't want to dismiss our new home as not being "home" to us so we came up with the phrase "old home". Now we say things like "back at old home, it's 97 degrees right now" and "oh, those are from old home" – referring to the weather that we don't miss and the limited items we brought with us to our new home.
The phrase has caught on completely between the two of us. We use it anytime we want to mention our old house or old location. It's become a commonly used phrase in our new home. I often wonder though, how strange it sounds to anyone outside of the two of us? It certainly sounded strange when we started using it. It's now become common language for us and I was using it this morning when looking at some old photos from old home. (Notice that the entire phrase is now a noun vs. the adjective/noun combo it used to be/should be.)
I was reflecting back on how we used to seek out greenery at old home. There wasn't a lot of it and we both craved it. Greenery and water and nature and animals. Now we've got more than we can imagine at our new home. We see geese, Great Blue Heron, Egrets, Osprey, Bald Eagles, beavers, chipmunks, squirrels, deer, horses, and elk almost on a daily basis (sometimes we miss the deer in the cove or the elk in the meadow). We've even spotted a baby bear once! And the greenery, ahhh, the greenery. We are surrounded by a forest filled with pines, evergreens, ferns of multiple varieties, Myrtle trees, blackberry brambles, thimbleberries, Rhododendrons, and dozens of other types of foliage, plants, and flowers. I don't have to tell you we found the water we were seeking – living on a lake pretty much sums that up.
We love it here on the Oregon Coast, living at a beautiful lake, enjoying every minute nature has to offer. Both of us grew up in the desert so it's odd that we don't have even a little remorse for our move and certainly aren't missing old home – the house or the location. We do, of course, miss our family greatly. We've been lucky to have some visitors already this year and we look forward to lots more as time goes on.
These are all photos of old home on this page. You can see that we were always seeking out the greenery, the nature, the water, and the animals.
Is it green where you live? If yes, what's your favorite thing about it? If no, do you wish you lived somewhere greener or do you love your space as-is? I'd love to hear your stories!
