Meae Aedes

     The Latin word for house is 'aedes' which is strange, because it only means house when it's in the plural. In the singular, it means simply room, implying that houses were seen as a collection of rooms in Ancient Roman society. Seems like a simple logical conclusion, but it's has a very delicate connotation, one that implies that is a house is a sum of parts, not an entity in it's own. Something that is more a collection of rooms than something in and of itself.

     I personally prefer the English definition to this Latin one because we can convey a similar distinction between the English words 'house' and 'home.' A house is very literally a sum of it's parts, it's the physical walls that hold together a shelter, but a home is a pseudo-intangible concept that's more closely linked with a feeling a place brings you than a place itself. Home is where the heart is, as the old saying goes, so it's not always four walls and a roof, more a location in the abstract. A latticework of feelings evoked by a building of memories.

     My house is a cozy tan house with a green roof on top of a hill up north. The basement is blissful in the summer and nearly unbearable in the winter. Most all of our heating comes from a wood stove that burns hard in the winter, nearly nonstop. My room is farthest from the stove and so I always need at least three blankets to sleep comfortably. I've developed a knack for dealing with cold, something I inherited from my dad who my mom affectionately calls a space heater.

     My home is two dogs, border collies each of them too smart for their own good, a cat named Squishy for obvious reasons, and at least twenty chickens. The chickens are free range and are smart enough not to get hit by cars and go into their hutch at night to avoid the local fauna. My home is swimming in at least two different lakes every summer and having a bonfire in the cotton wood grove. It's hauling boxes of wood through the snow to stay warm. It's spending at least two full days without power every winter. My home is fully appreciating the word nowhere.