“The call of home” is perhaps one of the most powerful forces in the world. Those who have been away from theirs for a long period of time have felt the longing to sleep in their own beds, eat at their own tables and be in a place that fills them with a sense of comfort that no other place can match. In that regard, equating a home to a mother’s womb is not so far out of the realm of possibilities. It is, as if, the need for a place of our own — a home — is etched into our DNA.
That is why the true value of a home cannot always be quantified. It transcends the monetary value we put on an apartment or property and emerges to become a place of solace and sanctity.
Perhaps, the current scenario we find ourselves in at the moment has been a great unveiler of the importance a home has — after all, it is the only bastion against a global pandemic. Our homes are providing us with a safety and security that can often be overlooked. The walls of our homes — both figuratively and literally — prevents many of the dangers that lurk all around us. It protects us from the wrath of nature as it does from men of ill intent.
Our homes also provide us with peace of mind — knowing that the people we love, the things that we love, are safe inside the protective barriers of the home.
This peace of mind, in return, helps us foster an environment that is loving and supportive. Home is the place where we grow up, discover ourselves and learn to be a family. For those lucky individuals out there, growing up in a caring and warm home has taught them to be compassionate, friendly, loyal, considerate, sympathetic, productive, and dynamic.
It is within the bounds of a home that we learn the skills necessary and build the foundation required to be better people and contributing members of the community. As we are social beings, we need the admiration, love and support of the people all around us — and that begins at home.
The first emotional attachments are formed inside a home with the people in the family and the place where a person is raised. This becomes the base for everything else. We forge memories that are related to the people and the location. We create a sense of identity formed around the place we live in. We get a better understanding of our place in society by the contents of our home and how the people inside the home deal with the outside. These things are fundamental for cognitive, behavioural and emotional development as well as to contribute towards the general well-being of a person.
And it is our homes, as mentioned earlier, that is providing us with a sanctuary during the current crisis. The best way so far to beat the spread of the novel coronavirus is to stay home and stay safe. The less contact we have with others outside, the less chance there is for the deadly virus to spread.We now have the opportunity to look at the positives and make the best out of our time at home by doing the things that are meaningful for ourselves as well as our families, and maybe even make memories that will last a lifetime.
Answer this, how many hours in a week of our busy lives we actually get to spend in our homes with our loved ones? After returning from a day’s work and unwinding, only the fortunate ones get more than 10 hours. The rest try to scrap together any time they can find. But now, there is enough time on our hands to sit down and play with our children, help them with their education, makeup stories with them, listen to the tales of the old-timers, get to know about school life, office life and daily lives of your siblings and partners — these are golden opportunities that are available to us thanks to the safety of our homes.
That is why it does not matter whether the place where we live or lived was mansion-like or cosy, had enormous rooms or was located next to an arcade — sure, those things are important to some and there are people who have had or want homes such as that. But what is most important is the home itself. The safety and comfort it provides is unparalleled.We embrace any and all the places where we live, make it our own. They hold a special place within us that can never be replaced. Maybe that is why we run after owning one. Almost every person born in Bangladesh has at least once dreamed of being the owner of their own home.
However, that is not the only dream that is dreamt up while living in a dwelling. Dreams of adventure, innovation and success are dreamt every day across the world — sometimes while we lay our heads on our pillows and sometimes while we dawdle our time daydreaming.During our childhood, these dreams manifested in the form of arranging the furniture of our homes into made-up lands and transported us to that far away destination, so that as we could traverse its space and achieve our coveted goals. And if we are indeed able to achieve our dreams in reality when we are older, our memory takes us back to that very place from whence the dream began.
That is where the true value of a home lies— not in the amount of money you exchange to acquire it.That is just the cost of a residence, a house.A home is built little by little— through cherished memories, unrestricted love, unbridled imagination and harmony. The reason people say there is no place like home is because there simply isn’t. No other location or place can actually compare to the sense of comfort and freedom we feel once we are at home. The warmness, the pleasantness — that is home, that is love, and that is life.
