Finding Home(s)

I believe that I have a really simple idea of love. "Love genuinely, love widely". Call it naivety, call it optimism, call it however you see it; but there are infinite things in life to love and I give my heart freely. Love people because you should, love places for what they provide, and love ideas for what they stand for. I once had a friend tell me, "Brittany, you are one of the bravest people, because you love without the guarantee of receiving it in return." While I am the girl who is known for loving too easily and though I have been the punch line of many jokes, I am the girl who loves deeply. There is something that I have learned from my ideology and practice of love. That is: I can open up my heart to the places where I arrive and I can leave pieces of my heart where they are called to remain. 

Today I read something that embodied my idea of love:

"What is the best part of leaving your heart in different places? It's that everywhere feels like home."

-Buzzfeed

Traveling has given me the exciting opportunity to fall in love and feel love repeatedly.  And with my track record, this is something I gladly welcome.

~I fell in love with Saint Peter's Basilica and left my heart in front of the altar.

~I fell in love with the small, picturesque streets in Trastevere and left my heart resting in Piazza di Santa Maria.

~I fell in love with the Pantheon and left my heart gazing up at the detailed dome.

~I fell in love with the warm Roman sun and bright blue skies and left my heart below standing on cobblestone.

~I fell in love with the snow falling in Austria and left my heart in the streets of snow.

~I fell in love with the loud music and friendly souls in the underground European clubs and left my heart with strobe lights.

~I fell in love with seeing familiar faces on an occasional but reenergizing FaceTime and left my heart with those I love.

~I fell in love with living in the streets of the past and leave my heart both mourning and celebrating what is now our history.

~I fell in love with the Kebab stands in every European country, with a strong shoutout to Berlin, and left my heart in the comfort of the best sandwich I have ever had.

~I fell in love with community and kindness and left my heart in the gentle smile of an Italian elderly woman.

~I fell in love with Belgian waffles for breakfast and 15 beer Delirium samplers for lunch and left my heart in that bliss.

~I fell in love with the opportunity to wander and I plan on leaving my heart in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Corfu, Munich, and the Amalfi Coast.

~I have fallen in love with optimism, appreciation, and hope and left my heart in this experience.

~I am continually falling in love with this opportunity to experience love and leaving my heart in the places I now call home.

So though I may be the girl who believes in living and loving with overt passion; I have been able to leave my heart in the journey I have been taking around the globe and as a result I have found many homes. Home, a place that most people consider to have a singular meaning. I say, it could be more. We shouldn't be pressured to just pick one place as home. They say home is where the heart is, if so, I pick all of the above.