No Place Like Home

Information:

• Source: The Wonders of Music Notebook
• Key: B flat Major
• Measures: 48
• Parts: Cello and Piano
• Duration: 3:25
• Pages: 4 Pages

“Be it ever so humble, it’s more than just a place. It’s also an idea—one where the heart is”. Verlyn Klinkenborg

Regardless of what people consider to be their home, it should be the safest place in the whole world, because, if individuals don’t count on some sort of shelter, their lives could become a living hell. I know people would agreed. It is all very simple: Everybody deserves to feel safe and thrive.

Feeling at home is more of a mental state of mind, it has to be, because I’ve heard people saying they feel at home when they are camping, nature thus become their shelter, and that is where they feel at ease. Or, people saying they feel at home living in New York City, which is the complete opposite of being in or closer to nature.

I remember the house where I grew up, like if it was yesterday, it is not so much the structure, or the design, or the materials used to build the house itself, but my experiences living with my family what made it my home. The town and all the people in it, complement the whole idea of a safer shelter that allowed me to thrived and being the person I am today.

I also know, most people remember their childhood house, that place full of memories, comfort, laughter. The memory of that place, tends to stay with us for the rest of our lives. I am fifty three years old, and I have lived in different homes through my entire life, seven to be exact. All of them, have a special place in my heart for many reasons.

Is a home the same as a house?, the short answer is NO. Although, in some instances, it could be interchangeable. But if I talk about a home, as if it is a feeling that would bring me happiness, then, home has different meanings. We say: “Home Sweet Home”, as opposed to: “House Sweet House”. Home in all fairness, it has to included the people I love. Some people out there in the world are looking for home, but never have been able to find it.

There are more wonders in the universe that I can count, and home is one of them, because, home is the shelter I have to cover from the biggest storm there is, the storm I called life. Home, is the place where I can freely detach,
and after ponder on life, I can start believing again in the beauty of people and the world.

It’s important that I have a house, since it’s the only place in the world where I can find my own identity. Ample things that happen in life, home is where they materialize, If I am not there, or I don’t have a place to call home, I will be missing out on those important things.

At the time of writing this letter, I was doing some research on the subject. I read articles, watched videos, I asked around about the meaning of home. What I found was distinctive positive. I have made a list of words related to what people think home is or should be.

Family
Good Food
Shelter
Love
Comfort
Relaxation
Peacefulness

I wrote “No Place Like Home” thinking on my own idea of what home means to me, and even though I agreed with everything people would say. There is something else I thought about. Home is the place where I want to be when I die. I can’t imagine dying in a hospital bed, or on the street, where my body needs to be identified and then remove, all of that, under the curious morbid eyes of strangers. What a horrible mess for everybody involved!

In 1998, J.R.Garcia Florez wrote an energetic song for OV7, one of the most popular and cheesy Mexican bands of all times. Convincingly, they belt out the following lyrics:

La casa no es más que un lugar
al que poder regresar cada vez que por un traspiés
necesitas que un poco de calor
te obligue a volver al camino.

Written in B flat Major, with a moderate tempo, where melody and harmony intertwined to deliver a peaceful, almost happy message, as though I arrived home from a long day and needed to quiet my mind. “No Place Like Home” is like a perfect excuse for a celebration of life at home, but it is just as well, a wishful thinking that, when I take my last breath, I will be in the comfort of home.

Written by Javier Anaya