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The light is what guides you home, the warmth is what keeps you there. 

Most of us have been home more this year than perhaps ever before. Have you enjoyed being home? What has been the best of it and what has been the worst? Has anything stirred you crazy? What changes have you made to add more pleasure or comfort to your surroundings? How does your home now make you feel? After months and months, is it a haven or has it become a hell?

Years ago I lived in Spain’s Canary Islands and there I made a friend named Pepe Juan. He dwelt in one side of an abandoned house on the property of a wealthy man who lived in a mansion further down the road. Pepe Juan had once been a sailor and had traveled and seen the world. But now he had no job or family and hadn’t left his vicinity of the island for so long that he’d never seen a certain enormous shopping mall built on the other side. One day we went to see a movie at the mall’s theatre and his reaction was shock and awe and childlike delight. Pepe Juan’s place in life was perhaps due to addiction struggles, but his mind was brilliant, his personality was unrivaled, and his heart was gold. 

Pepe Juan at home, Santa Brigida de Gran Canaria, Spain ~ photo: d. bartholomew

I don’t know what/ if any formal arrangement Pepe Juan had with his landlord, though he and his mutt Nala did provide a type of security/ doorman service chasing off kids who came to hang out and party in the hollowed-out house and directing visitors- delivery men and such- to keep going, going… “la casa grande” was just around the bend. 

Most days when I arrived for a visit I’d find him outside working in his garden, or sitting in the shade reading a book, Nala asleep by his side. They would both jump up to greet me and Pepe Juan would begin sharing his latest home diy project or escapade. One endearing thing about him was his ability to create a welcoming home in a couple of rooms of a derelict house with next-to-nothing. He had the bare minimum of furnishings and possessions, and kept everything ship-shape. He thoughtfully arranged the setting, he paid attention to details. His signature decor move was to hang almost everything on nails on the kitchen wall, from calendar and photos, to soup ladle and scissors, and a pistol- I never found out for certain if it was a toy or real. I’m sure this vertical vignette was to satisfy Pepe Juan’s flair as well as serve function, and I never got tired of examining the wall for new artifacts.

The large patio outside his front door was an additional living space he filled with painted furniture fashioned out of found lumber, plants he’d propagated in cans, a wash basin and clothesline, and a thin bamboo fence shielding the view of the rest of the crumbling house. With remnants of pails of paint he’d obtained, Pepe Juan emblazoned the patio with his initials- huge letters in several places- and on the wall next to his front door: PJL, his monogram. ♥️ No, his place wasn’t Horchow , but it was a piece of heaven. Pepe Juan’s example of making do, creatively beautifying, and being a thoughtful steward over his home is still one of the best I’ve ever encountered.

This year has emphasized the importance of home as a shelter from illness and unrest, and also exposed its vulnerability to elements of destruction. The same might be said for many of us, our minds and lives. We reach the end of 2020 weary but hopeful for the coming new year and a chance to rebuild in so many ways.

But first, we will celebrate the year end holidays- perhaps different and smaller than in the past- but we still will fill our homes with light during the coming month, in honor of our traditions and beliefs. May light also fill our hearts and fill the world.

If light is in your heart, you will find your way home. Rumi