June 15,2026– It was a relatively cool day today, and Hana did not need to be shielded from the sun, but I put her sun visor atop her head anyway. We had a nice walk along the west spur of Chester Drive, and back. I will walk again, solo, after writing this post. It’s a pleasant evening.

Several writers have recently spoken of what makes them feel at home. The term “emotional home” was used in one such post, written by someone who has lived in three different countries, for an extended period of time. He sees each of them as an emotional home, for different reasons.

I have lived in several communities, 18, in fact-mostly in the Unites States, but also in Viet Nam and South Korea. I have only been in one place I positively loathed. All other places had saving graces-even when the job I held was not all that wonderful.

Were I to think of emotional homes, I am more inclined to conjure up regions, with some special places within them, that secure my sense of well-being. Here are five such areas:

New England- Here, I was born, grew to a semblance of maturity and became immersed in the love of forest and ocean. Massachusetts and Maine are my primary emotional homes, within the region. It was always to Saugus and the North Shore that I went, when it was time to be with family. There are places, some no longer as they were when I frequented them and some that will never change all that much. It is along the rocky shore that I feel most at home there: Nahant, anywhere on Cape Ann, Marginal Way, Green Acre, Boothbay Harbor,Mount Desert Island, There are forested, mountainous areas that bring a sense of my ancestors’ presence: Breakheart, Blue Hills, Mount Katahdin, the Berkshires,the environs of Jackman. No mention of the region can leave out New Hampshire: Hampton Beach, Portsmouth, Lake Winnepesaukee, Franconia Notch. New England is my emotional tap root.

The Southwest- California to Texas, north to Colorado and Nevada. My sense of well-being was cemented in the vast expanses of desert, mountain, beach towns and rolling prairie. Here I became focused, found true love and strong Faith, bid farewell to my first and most faithful darling and have greeted her namesake. Here, I became truly affirmed. Arizona was the center piece, bringing me into the worlds of the Dineh and the Hopi, the campesinos and the cowboys, the self-reliant and the co-operative. The mountains and canyons always brought solace, even when they also brought challenge: Prescott, Williams,Flagstaff, Bisbee, Kayenta, Superior, Globe, Chinle- all were welcoming and surrounded by soothing Nature. Five trips down to the river and back, in the courses of single days, drove home the majesty of the Grand Canyon. Black Canyon and Prescott Circle, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Boyce Thompson, the Bisbee Staircase Challenge, Lockett Meadow, Mount Humphreys, Mount Elden, Bellemont- these were my tonics. Across the region, San Diego,the OC beaches, Carson City, Glenwood Springs, Santa Fe, Manitou Springs, Amarillo/Palo Duro Canyon and the little towns of the Northwest Passage to DFW Metroplex are the stars along the galactic path. Plano is my anchor now, linking all that is sacred from my past with the still bright promise of years to come.

East Asia- South Korea and the Philippines, nearly two thousand miles apart, with Taiwan and Hong Kong as intermediaries, brought both the smoothing of my rough edges and a sense that I was worth a lot more than I had previously realized. I began to take stock of myself, and value professionalism, in Korea. I learned to again truly treasure human companionship, on three visits to Manila and beyond. Jeju will always be the northwestward-pointing branch and Makati, the southwestern.

Canada– The opposite ends of this vast nation are two points of my North Star. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland also helped me smooth some remaining rough edges, and re-orient my thinking, so that reaching goals previously thought unreachable became mind over matter. Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast reinforced those notions. Montreal, even in an occasion of severe mental tests, is the soul center, the heart of this North Star.

Europe– Family of long ago flashed before me. Friends, long kept in abeyance, became real again. Suffering, in opposite areas of the central heartland, (Auschwitz-Birkenau and Srebrenica) was shown to me, in graphic detail, decades after the unspeakable horrors had transpired. Kindness, basic decency, were everywhere along the way-from Iceland, through Sweden, and on a winding path to Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, thence on another winding path to the British Isles. There was the expectation that I show common sense and not expect any favours. I found that refreshing and rewarding. Europe is the Conscience Beam of my heart house.

There are friends in all these places. I still hear from some. Others, i may not see or hear from until we meet in the Light. Neither they, nor the emotional strength I derived from our friendships, will be cast aside. I hope to acquaint Hana-and any siblings she may yet have, with some of these Emotional Homes, and places that lie between them. We walk in Beauty.