Tag Archives: el cosmico

a treehouse of my own

24 Mar

When I was a kid, I used to daydream about running away and making a home for myself. Not in any permanent way, I loved my family. I just enjoyed the idea of making a home for myself away from everyone and everything. Like a treehouse in the backyard I could visit but still be close to home. That would have been perfect, but we moved too often to set up a treehouse. I’m not complaining about the moves. I learned the blessings of impermanence at a young age. Moving often was great practice for accepting change and letting go of the old, to make way for the new.

I got in the habit of daydreaming about homes in unusual places. Driving by an underpass, I would imagine a makeshift home with a sleeping bag. I imagined living in one of those huge cylindrical cement tubes out by the railroad tracks. I pictured mattresses, cushions, and curtains to keep out the rain. Lest you think I only fantasized about the hobo life, I thought of real homes, too. I’d picture myself living in a round house on the beach, sitting atop stilts, like the homes in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where my family used to vacation. Wide, open spaces with minimal furniture. Windows open with only the sound of the ocean and the wind to keep me company. These images comforted me. I lured myself to sleep many, many nights decorating these makeshift homes. (more…)