Positive Possibilities Living
We have all heard the saying, “home is where the
heart is”. Home is where
we feel belonging. Where
we feel accepted, whole,
understood,
received,
grounded
and
alive.
While I had friends over at
my home last month, I was
arrested by a momentary
“a-ha!” when everything
felt absolutely perfect. I
felt completely supported, loved and accepted
as though everything was
in its perfect place. I felt
profoundly at home.
Our birthplace may be
home, where we have
memories from our childhood, where our foundations were built. Montreal
is my birthplace and is
definitely my hometown.
When I travel there with
those that know me now,
not then, I am told that I
express a freedom and
expansion in Montreal
that is evident. My body
language changes. I feel
more relaxed. There is
something in the air, in the
light on the streets and
buildings, in people’s attitudes, in the way we inter-
act that just says, “home”
to me – deeply.
I feel similar feelings about
speaking French. It is, I
say, the language of my
heart and home has a
lot to do with the heart.
When I get tired, I have
been known to just start
speaking French, without
even noticing I am doing
so. People have also noticed how my personality changes when I speak
French. I feel like an inner
part of me comes alive.
English for me is a more
cerebral language, more
practical and touching a place of worldliness. French reaches in
to touch my emotions
and reveals another inner
world with greater ease.
No matter how many
times I leave Canada, nor
how many amazing connections and adventures
I have abroad, somehow
coming back always feels
like home. There is something about the trees, the
air and the land that just
says home.
Surely this has to do with
the familiar. I have spent
most of my life in Canada.
There is something about
familiarity that breeds the
feeling of home. Familiarity feels grounding and
stabilizing. Upon what else
would a home be built?
We may find home in
the familiar. We may find
home in our sense of
place and accomplishments that we achieve at
work. We may find home
in family, landscape, territories and feelings of patriotism. These may add a
sense of purpose, belonging and meaning to our
life.
However much I find home
in something physical,
there is something deeper
that brings a true feeling
of home to me. One way I
touch the feeling of home
and find meaning in my
life is through my meditation practice and my creative work. In those, I rest
in a timeless home not
bound by borders or bodies. There I am.
Parvati Devi is the editor-in-chief of Parvati Magazine. In addition to
being an internationally acclaimed Canadian singer, songwriter, producer
and performer, she is a yoga teacher and holistic educator. Having
studied yoga and meditation since 1987, Parvati developed her own yoga
teaching style called YEMTM Yoga as Energy Medicine. Her current shows,
“YIN: Yoga In the Nightclub” and “Natamba” bring forward a conscious
energy into the pop mainstream. Her book “Confessions of a Former Yoga
Junkie” shares a candid, compassionate and inspiring story of a near death
experience and the life of a spiritual aspirant.
For more information on Parvati, please visit www.parvati.tv.