How do you define home?

Weekly wisdom to level up your creative life in 3 minutes, for free.

A SHORT STORY

One of the reasons I called this newsletter “Welcome Home” is because I have always been fascinated by the notion of home because we all know what it intuitively means, and yet it is so deeply personal at the same time.

For myself, my Mom felt like a piece of home.

When she passed away seven years ago, it was like a part of me disappeared. It was like falling into grief.

And so I turned to art to process it all. Together with Myles Sciotto, I wanted to ask this simple question— can memory, music, and architecture help us remember the forms of home?

To remember comes from the Latin rememorari, or ‘to call to mind and bring again to memory’.

So, I returned to the roots of my ancestors in Cripple Creek, VA where I recorded interviews with my family, and through a technique called photogrammetry, I 3D modeled my Mom’s childhood home.

Through this process, we created four digital portraits that musicalized the 3D data to explore home in a way that can be both seen and heard together. You can experience it by clicking here.

What surprised me about all of this is the reminder of how quickly we can forget, and how art is a way of calling back to what we have forgotten.

I say this to you now because I believe all of us have this longing to return home, a longing to remember.

Where is home for you? How do you define it? And what is your process to find ways to return to it?

A CREATIVE TOOL

Lately, I have been using ChatGPT as a tutor as I teach myself how to code.

Do you also want to learn something new, but the time is limited? ChatGPT can fetch the most helpful information regarding any topic in an accessible, learner-friendly format.

Use the following prompts:

"Hey GPT, I want to learn about the [TOPIC],
Identify and share the most important 20% of learnings from this topic that will help me understand 80% of it."

“Can you teach me how to [TOPIC]?”

A PIECE OF ART

Sonora Desert Poem by Lucille Clifton

The ones who live in the desert,
if you knew them
you would understand everything.
they see it all and
never judge any
just drink the water when
they get the chance.
if i could grow arms on my scars
like them,
if i could learn
the patience they know
i wouldn't apologize for my thorns either
just stand in the desert
and witness.

Grateful,

Michael