A proper place in space and time

Moving house unceremoniously from one to the next, no goodbyes, no party, no ritual or farewell as far as I can remember, nor any backward glances. I do wonder why Mum needed to move so frequently. It’s almost as if she was on the run and given my desire for escape to turquoise seas, I can relate to this and during these Covid times, I bet you might too.

I went to five different primary schools, all the way through one secondary school and lived in 18 different houses by the time I was in my early twenties. It was interesting to experience different places and spaces and they all had their merits and drawbacks. Childhood memories are defined by houses, by neatly packaged pockets of time.

I do wonder though about the lack of ‘closure’ on each house and the saying of goodbyes to friends made and how important this is actually. To acknowledge time spent in a place, with a beginning , the living in it and eventually the end. A bit like life itself. Much like life itself. And if, along the way, there are a succession of open ended endings, it creates a pattern of doing things ( Quilts ) and not finishing them, or finishing a thing and not celebrating it to give its proper place in space and time.