Harrisburg’s Heartfelt  Home

What location in your past travels reminds you most of being at home?  

“Home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling.”(Cecelia Ahern)

Let’s be realistic. Committing to a routine of being on the road or out of the country as I’ve often done presents an issue of homesickness for me at times. For I can’t easily replace those advantages that one’s place of permanent residency provides when you’re hopping aimlessly from place to place. Fortunately, once in a while a specific destination somehow recalls memories of what I truly enjoy about living at home. For it’s a place as I see it where memories are made, where laughter is shared, and where you can truly be yourself.

In this regard, I can daydream back to my childhood times near Cleveland, Ohio when on a seasonal basis in our suburban residential neighborhood,  I often found time to both engage in creative free play indoors in our house basement  along with spending time  outdoors curiously checking out dense forestland, a rocky valley  and a major river. So I’ve decided to take a photo inspired  look in this blog at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where such happy flashbacks to that long ago home setting strongly resonated with me during our three day road trip stopover in this region. One particular excursion that aroused such personal interest there took place at Fort Hunter Homestead and Park.

Know then that the main focus  of my visit to Fort Hunter that morning centered around understanding its dramatic transformation from  a battle ravaged supply fort along the Susquehanna River during the French and Indian War to  its modestly rebuilt  tourist attraction of today. Yet in doing so, I recall surprisingly noticing some emotional release from recurrence of homesickness that I was experiencing at this time. How satisfying it felt then to just wander around the estate grounds in nostalgic fashion along a centrally located green space and pleasant foothills path on my own. Notably I took time then to simply sniff some fragrant flowers, push off with ease from a swing set, watch birds fly by the sky and stare idly at the rippling river waters as I once recall doing so often as an Ohio kid. In addition, a follow-up tour of the grand Fort Hunter mansion existing from colonial era times that morning provided me with some similarly felt indoor glimpses of those curious times as a Cleveland bred child. Thus I could thus personally identify at that time with room allotted space revealing fondness for reading books quietly, arranging toy and seashell collections, enjoying the steady movement of a rocking chair as well as securing sufficient storage of that old bike.

A key test for me to then cure negative thoughts of homesickness in my future travels will be to explore a more adult version of an alternative home.  For too long it seems, I’ve thought about finding more inner peace and quiet away from the year around traffic  and maddening tourist frenzy of South Florida. So in Harrisburg, I’ve learned to just “let go” of worrying about such urban lifestyle complexities wherever I’m at and enjoy those simple activities of free play that I’ve always loved to do.

Blog Source: 

https://forthunter.org/