Here is a passage from my writing guide for global nomads, Of Many Lands: Journal of a Traveling Childhood:
Holland is for me what childhood should be: freedom, bikes, canals, fields. The brick row house in downtown The Hague where I spent the five middle years of my childhood was the best home I ever had. To think of its big, leaky bedrooms with fireplaces, its ballroom-size bathrooms, its furniture-stuffed attics is to bring me a sensation of sleepy protectedness. A canopy that holds fast even under drumming rain. That home had for me what Patricia Hampl, the memoirist, calls “the radiance of the past,” for it was home the way it is when you are young: the home your parents give you.
Bring to mind the homes of your childhood. When you think of those houses, which of them glow? Describe one of them, being sure to incorporate concrete details, and using all your senses.
Originally posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013
Sara Mansfield Taber 