18 Feb 2013

Tad Williams said ‘Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself within your own head. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.’  I’ve been trying to keep this quote in mind for the past few weeks as I moved and felt very uprooted by it. The building I lived in was sold in the fall and I was promptly kicked out for the new owners to move in. It is with minimal shame that I admit I accepted this change of location with a healthy amount of kicking and screaming.

I hate moving in general, but this one in particular was much harder to cope with. I had, what I considered to be, the perfect apartment. It was in my favorite neighborhood, had fruit tress and fire pit in the backyard and was right on the river. I will miss its stainless steel kitchen, its wide baseboards and hardwood floors and its huge soaker tub. I will miss the way music sounded and echoed in its expansive living room.

My new apartment is slowly coming along, though. I decided to downgrade a little to make more financial room for travel, so my new place is cozier. It’s in an old victorian house on a quiet tree lined street and has a little more character than the previous. It’s also in the largest building I’ve ever been in, there are 4 other units in this house so there will be no loud music while I mop the floors here. As of today, it’s been almost 3 weeks since I brought the first box in here. I was crying and mad and paranoid my new place would have ants or something (it doesn’t). That first box contained my ipod dock and speakers and I put on some familiar music to ease my transition. And since that song, my new place has gradually been opening itself up to me and showing its personality.

While my old apartment could handle agressive beats and screaming vocals, my new space demands sleepier tunes to fill its walls, some simple arrangements to bounce off the fairy lights I’ve strung around the biggest window. So today you’re getting the song I used that day to make myself feel at home. Fink is a great british singer-songwriter that’s been dj-ing and producing for a while now; he collaborated with Amy Winehouse a few times before her untimely demise. He’s a fantastic guitarist that switches it up a bit from the traditional 3 chord folk singer and has some very sweet lyrics to compliment it all perfectly.

Maybe good old Tad was right. Maybe something physical like a pile of bricks and drywall shouldn’t be what I associate the most with feeling at home. It should always be something I can take with me, and as long as my music collection can come along with me I think I will be okay. Music will always be what I escape and turn to, and the album this particular song features on has been instrumental in this change in my life. So take a moment to relax today on this holiday Monday, hit play and hopefully this song will make you feel right at home. 

“And the things that keep us apart keep me alive, And the things that keep me alive, keep me alone. This is the thing……….”