The Perception of Reality

For as long as I can remember I have made a trip to my grand parents house around Thanksgiving time. It has always been a time of family and catching up on the hard times and great times of life.  My grandparents house has never very large to me, but don't get me wrong, it has always been comfortable. In the summer of 2007 I moved to England for a span of 3 years. During that time I had no face to face connection with my family that still lived in the United States. It was a hard time, especially for how young I was. There were no longer any annual Thanksgiving trips to my grandparents. I was 9 when I moved and that was the last time I got to see my grandparents house before moving abroad. The things I forever remembered about their pad was that there house consisted of one bathroom the size of a closet... in fact, the closet was bigger then their bathroom. It had two bedroom areas that were a fair size and a computer room that doubled as a jam center for my Papaw. For as long as I have known him, he has played the guitar. They have never been much for rolling in money, but if there was one thing you would find in that house then it would be one beautiful guitar. Moving on from his jam headquarters and about 30 yards away would be the living room. A beautiful and comfortable couch, a recliner, and a mid sized TV. The funny thing is that we never hung out in any of those places. We always got together in the kitchen/ dining room. Our family has always been centered around food in the house. Food was one of those things that was always in the house. Always a delicious mid-west home cooked meal. Things never really changed through out the years I have visited. Maybe a new piece of furniture here and there, but the point I am trying to make is that nothing changed. There is something comforting in that. My grandparents house had consistency and stability. One of the major things that is natural in humans is that we don't necessarily like change. We like to be comfortable with what we know. My grandparents house always gave me that feeling of comfort as if I could always be at peace. That is one of the things that has stuck with me through out the years. A lot of people say that the places they once went to were "larger" as a kid, but it had some how gotten "smaller" over the years. I think that is because they don't really have a strong remembering or comfort with the place. It is all about familiarity.