I’ve been thinking about Home a lot lately. I know this is because I recently moved to a new state 650 miles away, and I am still settling in. I find myself wanting to feel at Home in my house, my community, my heart and spirit.
One week before we were about to move into a house we had lined up to rent, our lease fell through. We had terrible issues with the landlord, to the point that we were terrified about moving into the property and renting from this person. I burst into tears several times that day. This house did not feel like our new Home.
But, the moving truck would be arriving in one week! We were moving to a new city, a new state where we did not know anyone. Where would we live? What would we do?
I was talking to Liv (my friend and co-author of Infinite Purpose) about my worries and she heard from Spirit. “Remember to follow what FEELS like Home to you, in all ways.”
We kept that in the front of our minds, following what feels like home as we quickly scrambled to find another place to live. Incredibly, in a very tight rental market, we ended up finding the sweetest house in the sweetest neighborhood- all within 24-hrs! It was a much better place for us than the original troubled rental. In this case, it was our literal home, but the strong feeling was more about being at “Home” in my heart.
Remembering this has become such an important way for me to make decisions and get clear on what feels right and what does not. Following what feels like Home can help to bring us back when we feel led astray.
This painting is a reminder to “follow what feels like Home to you, in all ways.” It is about being at Home in your own heart. Following what feels like Home can help to bring us back when we feel led astray.
May we all know the way Home.
With much love,
Hello friends! I'm Lori Portka. I make art with the intention to radiate love and healing. 
Oh my! I understand this. My partner and I relocated 6500miles from Zimbabwe to UK in October 2015 and finally moved into our rented home in late November just two weeks before you wrote this. We were just settling in too.
We didn’t have anything like your initial experience, but we were missing all our people, and our creatures we left behind in the care of our lovely tenants renting our home there. Taking on a 6 month lease in the most unexpected place was a giant leap of faith and it was never part pf “the plan” to rent where we did.
On the first night we were freezing cold, huddled up under the duvet staring at each other and feeling very displaced. We both said “I want to go home”.
I spent a lot of time in my small yoga space I created there – envisioning my actual location on the earth, zooming in on the very spot I stood, just like one would do on Google Earth. I felt the quality of the earth and rock beneath me, the fresh, cold, clean air about me, the trees, forests … some ancient, standing watch. I tuned into the sounds of the birds, the wind…. and really FELT my place as part of this ancient land of my ancestors (and my own birth although I had never lived here). I felt such a deep deep sense of belonging after that, coupled with overwhelming gratitude at being able to live here.
We spent 5 wonderful months easing into life in this breathtakingly beautiful Perthshire countryside we now call home, and just yesterday handed on the keys to the next tennant as we bought our first home here 2 months ago, just down the road.
We ended up here, in Perthshire, because I followed what felt right, what felt like “home”.
And it is.
Hi Lori
Oh MY! How I resonated with your story.
My partner and I relocated 6500 miles last October to live in Scotland. We found our first home to rent, and moved in at the end of November, shortly before you wrote this post. We had different ideas of where we wanted to be back then, never ever even considering Perthshire, where we now live.
We spent October and half of November down near London and I spend many a frustrating hour searching websites for rentals up in Scotland. I felt scattered and had no sense of where home was. After a rude reply from an agent, and feeling close to tears, I typed in Google search “houses to rent no agents” and came across a site. Various search parameters narrowed the options down to one property. A day later we were speaking to our new landlord, and making arrangements to meet him to view the property as soon as we arrived in Scotland. We didn’t even know where in Scotland it was until we searched google maps.
We viewed the place, took it on the spot and moved in within four days. On our first night in our new “home” we were huddled up, exhausted and cold, on a mattress on the floor, feeling very displaced. Looking at my partner I whispered “I want to go home”. She replied “so do I”.
Over the next couple of weeks I focused my yoga on connecting to this place, this land of my birth (although my parents emigration when I was 6 months old meant I had never lived here) and the world that now surrounded me. I stood on my mat, closed my eyes, tuned in to the present moment, into this new landscape….. the earth and rock beneath my feet, beneath my mat, beneath the grass, deep, deep down into the core of the earth, the same core I had left far behind in Africa. I breathed that land beneath me in, and up, and out. I breathed the sky in and down and out, to the earth. I tuned in – the fresh, cool air I could feel and smell, the breeze I could hear blowing through the huge trees that stood witness, the birdsong, the ravens…. I imagined zooming out, like Google Earth, seeing the whole of the Earth, seeing my previous home, seeing my creatures ( left in the care of the sweet souls renting my home there) running and lying in the warm sun. Then I zoomed back in to my current location, and felt deeply and firmly rooted to this ancient land that has been home to my line and my kind for many lifetimes, the home of my past lives too, I feel.
I opened my eyes to the sky, surrounded by these great magnificent trees, and my heart said “I’m home”.
We bought our own place, just 2 miles down the road and moved in this month. We handed on the keys of our very special first home here to her new tennant yesterday.
All of this happened because I opened myself to align with whatever possibility presented itself, and took it when it did.
And now… home is here:)
I so delight in seeing your paintings and projects…. never stop doing what brings you and many others great joy.
Much love
Sue