Home – The Feeling of Safety and Belonging

A home (also house, abode or domicile) is a place of residence for human beings or animals. It provides a sheltered, private area for living, sleeping and cooking. It may be attached to land or on the water. It can be built in a static form such as a house, apartment or caravan; mobile such as a boat, trailer or yurt; or virtual.

People usually feel at home when they are in familiar places where they are surrounded by loved ones and happy memories. This is why a lot of time and money are spent on making a house a comfortable and welcoming place to live in. However, there is another sense of home which goes beyond physical location, and this is the feeling of security and belonging. A feeling of safety is essential to a person’s wellbeing, and a feeling of being at home means that you are somewhere that makes you feel safe enough to be yourself.

It can be difficult to define what home really is, as it is a very personal and emotional concept. Some people never find another home after leaving the one they grew up in, and others rediscover home in different ways as they move through their lives. Whether it is on the Tiwi Islands or in Bangalore or Vancouver, for some people these new places become their homes and they continue to rediscover that feeling of being at home wherever they are. For others, the idea of returning to their original home is frightening and they are unable to leave. The concept of home is so important to humans that it is a common theme in literature and music, as well as a significant part of the vocabulary of most languages.