The House on Your Shoulders

You may or may not know that I am somewhat obsessed with shows about serial killers. I have no idea why, but I'm sure one of the profilers on my current favorite show, Criminal Minds, could tell me.

Tonight they went to Mexico to solve a crime - I'll spare you the details since they have not much to do with this post, and you may be eating while reading.

At the end of the episode, they had a Mexican proverb (I should have googled to see if it's real, but it doesn't really matter).

The proverb went, "The house does not stand on the ground, it stands on a woman."

This really struck me because not only have I had a number of changes in my life, including my home, recently, but some women close to me have as well. Yesterday, my mom, AuntieKnickers blogged about her mom and how well she handled moving around throughout her adult life. It strikes me that their house - their home - was built upon her shoulders, and so it did not matter where they were physically, as long as they had her holding them up.

Because of the way my life is set up right now, I have to be able to carry my home with me, whether it's because I am moving permanently, or just housesitting for friends. This always feels a little scary, but after it's done, I never know what I was worried about. Someone close to me (you probably know who...) has been having a lot of upheavals in her life recently, and I think she would probably make some beautiful piece of art work out of this proverb right now. She is learning not only how to carry her home with her, but what that home looks like, what it feels like. The hardest part about this maybe that you cannot be prepared to learn this lesson. It is not something that you plan on happening, and most of us probably think we've already got it figured out - I think she did, and I usually do until something goes wonky and the foundation I thought I built strong starts to crumble.

I like this proverb a lot, but I think if I were re-writing it I would say that "...the house sits on the family". Sometimes that family is your given family, and sometimes your chosen, but no matter who you are... even Wonder Woman had Wonder Girl backing her up. I don't think My grandmother could have held up her house without the love and support of her family.