Home Is Where Nervous System Rests

Wherever I am in the world, 

something shifts in me the moment 

I enter the gates of my colony. 

My whole system softens. 

My body exhales.

It’s not the walls or the rooms that do this. 

It’s the trees. 

Tall, green, and quietly present, 

they line the roads all around. 

During the rains, they are especially breathtaking, 

glistening leaves, 

darkened bark, everything alive.

And in that moment, 

my nervous system knows: 

this is home.

Home is not the space where you live. 

Home is where 

your body 

finally 

relaxes.