Born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand, I am without question a Kiwi, and Aotearoa has a special place in my heart, as well as a deep connection with my mind and soul. I spent pretty much all of my childhood and most of my teenage years in New Zealand, spent a couple of years down south in Dunedin, and then opted to head to Brisbane, Australia, where I now reside and have done so for over 10 years. I still very much identify as a Kiwi and am also a proud Māori.

As I grow older and think more about New Zealand and the impact that raising my children in Australia might have on them, I analyse the various aspects of life, culture, opportunity, connection, and community. My wife is Irish, so neither of us truly calls Australia home, but we both agree that it is. The unique aspect of both being immigrants with two Australian-born children is that we all have a different earthly connection to the world and a unique understanding and concept of culture.

When I think about home, the first thoughts are family, community, and fundamentally a connection of memories and experiences from my formative years. Our formative years are the most distinctive and important years in all of our lives. We begin to form our ideologies, create our deepest connections, learn from our mistakes, find answers to various questions, and begin construction on the human we will someday become. For me, all of those components have created what I call home in my own mind. Even though our family is here, building a life together in Australia, I still regard my home as that original home on the North Island of New Zealand.

However, with life evolving and my belief in what home actually means, it is beginning to change somewhat. Although home traditionally is formulated around a physical, tangible location, the whole idea of home is transforming into a universal base for energy storage amongst deep-rooted and connected individuals. When I think about home, I have a physical location in my mind. But when I think about home as a formation of chosen connections, I find myself in an expansive mind space where home is both everywhere and anywhere but anchored by the members of my inner circle, my deepest universal connections.

I can feel at home on my great-grandfather's farm on the outskirts of Otaki, and I can feel the soul and energy of my tupuna, my ancestors. I feel at home in my father's beautiful house in the hills behind Upper Hutt, Wellington. I feel at home with my wife and children in the magnificent, sunny tropical climate of Brisbane, Australia. There are a range of physical locations for me that form a spiritual home for my soul, some of which I haven't been to for decades. But when I set foot on them, I feel that connection once more.

It's true that home is what you make it, and even more so, home is where the heart is. Although many of us have a specific physical location in mind, we all have a range of connections scattered throughout moments in time that have captured a piece of our soul. Perhaps that means we have a piece of home wherever we go. And perhaps, if so, that means we have a piece of happiness rooted in each of those homes we have created in our world.

Thanks,

Dean