To bring about this change we need to shift our perspective from a conventional understanding of home as a physical space to a more inclusive definition. Home can be a sense of belonging, a supportive community, and the feeling of security wherever one is. This shift in thinking lays the foundation for innovative solutions.
We don’t need to live in a home, we live in our body. Our body lives in the world.
The place we think of as our home is just a box, a protective shell we use to make life easier and more pleasant. It’s important to have a box to keep us safe from the elements, but the size of the box is severely over-rated.
Too often the box is packed so tight with “stuff” that we have trouble living healthy lives. Or we spend an excess of conscious effort keeping that stuff safe from thieves. Or, we spend so much time working to earn enough to service the box that we have little time left to enjoy it.
So why do humans strive to have bigger, fuller, more expensive boxes? It really doesn’t make sense.
As someone who no longer resides in the city, when I do visit and see all the boxes jammed in together in row after row of homogeneousness, it repulses me. And I don’t mean that to insult the inhabitants in any way, it’s just that now I value wide open spaces so much more.
When I think about it, it’s probably because I lived in the city too long and quietly longed for far horizons every day.
Yes, a box is a box is a box, but a smaller, emptier, smarter box that you can actually afford to own, and move around, is a box that will improve your security and your life and lessen your struggle.
For me there came a time after an unprovoked, undeserved eviction when I started to spend every waking moment thinking how I could prevent this from happening again. I had a job and some borrowed time staying with family and slowly my thoughts turned to the concept of unforced homelessness.
Really not homelessness but houselessness.
And I set about planning and building out an old truck into a tiny, smart rolling home with a rustic “log cabin” feel, full of character and practicality. I built it to live in, not just to holiday in, only 16 cubic metres, but with enough room in it to dance when the music demands!
I’d always loved log cabins. To me they feel strong and secure and gave me a sense of connection with the earth. I never imagined that one day I would actually have one, much less that it would be mobile.
In the first weeks I have to admit I felt a bit insecure and ungrounded, but after a certain concept was revealed to me it didn’t take that long at all for those feelings to diminish and I started to feel strong, like it was the best thing I’d ever done.
And it is!
