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That ever present feeling of longing for home

There and back again

There and back again

Senior Member
Don't know where, what, or even when but deep down I have this consuming feeling that this world is not home worse still I don't exactly mesh well with people culturally. My ways are not their ways and their ways are not mine. I feel like a strange thing a foreigner in a strange land having been born into a generation that only lives in their smart phones and social media accounts. There is none my age to relate too on a deep spiritual level, I am tired of this modern Babylon of only mere existence and empty distractions. There is no magic, no power, no obvious purpose, and little to no true freedom but rather empty illusions all the while absolutely everything gets commercialized.

Do any of you have similar feelings and even experiences?
 
Hi T&BA,

I understand. I have been there and have heard many here echo these sentiments in one way or another over the years. Sometimes the feeling is better and sometimes worse. For me, at least, it sometimes goes away altogether for stretches of time. At these times I seem to be in my more practical and pragmatic mode (and also remind myself that I'd rather have a shot of anesthetic before having teeth yanked from my head, etc.). I.e., the modern world is worse in some ways and better in others. Likewise, society. I really don't know how to weigh modernity against things missed from the past, because progress in one area seems to be matched by equal or greater regress in another. Overall, I think we are going "forward" . . . I think. But I also feel that positivism, materialism, and the banal commercialism of modern life are, indeed, disasters.

Cordially,
S&S

PS--I also think that relations between the sexes are the worst they have ever been, but I am an old curmudgeon and was raised to believe in a more chivalrous ideal than seems to be acceptable among the products of this un-gentle age. I also may be getting off-topic.
 
I totally relate to these feelings... to the point where I've wanted to just go off in a caravan, or a shack somewhere and live a more simple life. Me and my husband seriously considered it at one point before having our second child, but something stopped us. What was that? Maybe the monetary factor. I still dream one day to live that more simple life. Doing things like gardening, keeping vegetables, making something with my own hands as opposed to buying things sometimes relieves the feeling. I wrote a whole novel about the trappings of our society/consumerism between the ages of 23/24. The summary of that novel was that we will one day return to how we began, but having learnt a whole lot in the process. Modern life doesn't have to be bad, we can take the good of what we've learnt (medicine, for one), and hopefully remember what truly matters in the process. The blatant consumerism we have going on now can't last forever, because resources are not unlimited. It has to stop eventually. I think all the characters we're seeing out in the world at the moment (current POTUS for one) are just a symptom of people feeling unsatisfied by our current way of living. Technology was meant to relieve of us working so many hours, instead the opposite seems to be true. People are working more hours, not less. That is not sustainable, in my opinion. Becoming modern day slaves to the bank is not sustainable either. I just sincerely hope that the build up is not just another build up to another world war, or similar disaster, but then, looking at our history as a species I'd say it's not out of question.
 
tanker said:
Oh yes ... same on all counts. I can't adapt to this chaotic, divisive, aggressive society I see around me. If I was younger I'd buy a place in the middle of nowhere and while away some pleasant time dreaming of past life and watching the seasons change ... no, wait a minute, we don't even get proper seasons any more ...

But we all seem to have joined the computer age, eh?
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Been wanting to do the same myself and even found the property that I would like but sadly being trapped in the class below the middle class sucks big time.
 
At age nine, I saw the movie "The Time Machine". I was dreaming of a Time Machine since then and playing that I had one. Even though I soon realized that there had been either war or disease or something else in all eras. The longing remained and remains until today. While I enjoy the technology of modern times which enables me to talk to people all over the world and to talk to my father via skype, I wish I could go back, centuries back... to a time which wasn't any better, which was as far from Peace on Earth as we are today, but yet still... the yearning will never leave me. Not until I have resolved what ever needs to be resolved so that I can move on one day...
 
Good lord YES. For me it is a deep longing, sometimes to be European (I live in the US) and sometimes it is an intense longing to have lived with my Irish or Irish-American ancestors, in a rural village where you know every single person, where you might play music together for entertainment, not sit looking at a phone or TV, when there were rituals of life you did without question and you helped each other out and talked to each other and walked or biked everywhere. This world seems more and more like someone else’s, like I’m a relic and my way of thinking just isn’t what the vast majority of people like or want or value. I’ve always felt like an outsider looking for home. Still do.
 
Maybe past-life recall inevitably has us looking for something other than where we are right now. My own longings seem to pull me back to a time before civilisation even was dreamed of, something so far off it cannot be found, only imagined. That presents a problem. We can't simply travel to a particular place and find everything is solved. While I agree that some places may be better to live than others - and this is a matter of taste or preference - at the same time, wherever we go, we take ourselves with us. That is the clue, it is inside ourself, not out there in some time or place, that we find what we seek.

"what the vast majority of people like or want or value"
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That in itself is a matter for consideration. I'm of the opinion that TV and movies and of course advertising are being used to sell us ideas about what we are supposed to like, what we are supposed to be like. On the one hand film and tv programme makers, including news and documentary material, deny that they are setting out to influence us all - they claim to merely reflect what is already out there. On the other hand, businesses spend vast fortunes to have their commercials shown on those same platforms, because they know it shapes people's lives. They can't both be right.

I take my own view - ignore all that, the world can be whatever we want it to be. As for the mainstream media, it is a self-contained bubble, there's no need to be caught up inside it.
 
Well I’d like to add my opinion on the topic. I’ve mentioned somewhere else that where I live doesn’t feel like “home”, and I’m longing for a certain place that does. Haven’t come across it yet. Oh what I would do to live in the countryside with a cute house, all alone, no close neighbors, just somewhere peaceful. Have seen some pictures of Switzerland and Germany and there seems to be an abundance of fields with random houses scattered about, it’s calling my name for sure. I don’t know why I am so detached and don’t enjoy being around others for too long, I’ve always been that way. I think part of the reason is because I can’t relate to those my age at all, and really only feel that I relate and connect with the “older” folk.
 
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LisaR said:
Good lord YES. For me it is a deep longing, sometimes to be European (I live in the US) and sometimes it is an intense longing to have lived with my Irish or Irish-American ancestors, in a rural village where you know every single person, where you might play music together for entertainment, not sit looking at a phone or TV, when there were rituals of life you did without question and you helped each other out and talked to each other and walked or biked everywhere. This world seems more and more like someone else’s, like I’m a relic and my way of thinking just isn’t what the vast majority of people like or want or value. I’ve always felt like an outsider looking for home. Still do.
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Hi
The romantic ideal of a small time simple village life hits me sometimes too. Only then I realize the down side of it all - as long as you are hardcore mainstream it may work but just imagine for a second being gay or trans or handicapped or maybe the only red head - whatever - there has not been much place for individualism.
I have failed in my most recent pl living in a village and also in this life I didn't adapt too well (out of other reasons).
Imagine us having these pl memories and some ptsd symptoms in such an environment .. no exchange via www possible.
Btw Have you seen the movie "the village"?
It is about a group of people who settle down in the 60ies pretending its pre industrial time raising their kids and let them believe that there is a monster out in the woods so they wont find out the truth. I liked the movie a lot.
 
glia21 said:
Hi
The romantic ideal of a small time simple village life hits me sometimes too. Only then I realize the down side of it all - as long as you are hardcore mainstream it may work but just imagine for a second being gay or trans or handicapped or maybe the only red head - whatever - there has not been much place for individualism.
I have failed in my most recent pl living in a village and also in this life I didn't adapt too well (out of other reasons).
Imagine us having these pl memories and some ptsd symptoms in such an environment .. no exchange via www possible.
Btw Have you seen the movie "the village"?
It is about a group of people who settle down in the 60ies pretending its pre industrial time raising their kids and let them believe that there is a monster out in the woods so they wont find out the truth. I liked the movie a lot.
Click to expand...
You make a good point about the small village - as long as you fit in, you’re good, & if not, you could be an outcast. I did see The Village and really liked it - the writer/director has some very psychologically interesting stories (even tho some of his movies have been bad IMO). I’m waiting for him to come out with one about reincarnation:)
 
I feel longing, but... For the wondering. Trips, travels etc. I feel in my own element, when I travel. My homeland is literally where I stay. If it comes to the concret destination: Balkans!
That's and another issues allowed me to believe that I had to be Roma/Gypsy woman in one of my previous lives.
 
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