Deb Kim’s Favorite Place

What makes a place a “favorite?”  Is it the memory of a happy time? In that case, an altar at a Church on Hilton Head could be my favorite place (yesterday was my husband’s and my 19th wedding anniversary.) But no, that’s not my favorite place. It’s simply a locale.

My parents used to take us to a local amusement park as kids, long since torn down and rusted away to a mere shell of itself, only ghostly outlines of fun and family remain. Nope. Not my favorite place.

My favorite place is a sofa. In a basement. In a house I’ll never see again. Where once, decades ago, I drove thirty miles from home to seek solace and hide in a moment of teen angst. I had just had a major bonk in the head that made me realize I did not live in a fairy tale (it wasn’t that my folks were divorcing, but it felt as earth-shaking at the time.)  It was the day I stopped being just a kid and realized that the world would not always be “perfect.”  I suppose it was the first of many such lessons.  That orangey sofa. It was a safe haven. I return to that place every so often (in my mind) when life gets overwhelming, the kids’ needs threaten to drown me, stress looms over me like a mountain with no summit. I don’t picture the room or even the person I was with. It’s the sofa.  I just call up the warmth – the enveloping safety. And I can breathe.

A place can be a feeling as well as a locale. Mine’s a big comfy couch!

5 Replies to “Deb Kim’s Favorite Place”

  1. Awww…that’s such a nice, simple sentiment. My husband’s family had a big, ugly orange couch that got passed around a few times between family members. It was hideous, but they called it “the magic couch,” and it really was the most comfortable, relaxing piece of furniture you could imagine.

    Tawna

  2. Thanks – my book has started shipping this week – a bit early, which is fine, from Amazon. It has me feel a whole lot of pressure and nerves and angst and just made me think of “the couch.” I know I’m usually chirpy and funny and upbeat – sometimes I’m not. Like all of us – life’s challenges have molded me, perhaps prepared me for what my husband and I face today. Nothing has prepared me for putting out a memoir though. LOL! KIM

  3. Love this. Makes me think of the old couch in my parents’ basement, in the home they built when I was young … and sold a few years ago. Boo hoo. Congrats on your book shipping! What an exciting month this will be for you ahead! xo

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