I just returned from a four-day pilgrimage of sorts, a visit to the city where I was born and raised: Mexico City. I haven't been back there in over 16 years. As you can imagine, there was no avoiding the flood of memories that came with it.

 

That's me in front of the home where I came of age. I learned to drive on the cobblestone streets that surround the neighborhood, went to a small British school in the house next door, and discovered the world through the lens of my first camera (an Instamatic), when every roll of film was precious and every photo mattered.

 

I played with Barbies back then and had a huge crush on a cute boy named Dan (whom I never once talked to, mind you, just spied on him playing in the schoolyard from our first floor window). I didn't need to go inside the house to remember the hours I spent playing on the roof by the water tanks, or talking with our housekeeper as she tirelessly washed and swept and ironed and folded.

 

 

There's no question that where we grow up shapes who we become. And our childhood living spaces – chaotic or harmonious as they may have been – do matter. Revisiting the significant players in our upbringing – our homes – give us a perfect opportunity to clear (and claim) what we may have left behind.

 

It gives us a chance to "re-member" in the best sense of the word: to gather, mend, and reclaim all of the scattered parts of ourselves – "members" if you will – that we've neglected or have gone missing.

 

Needless to say, I feel renewed and refreshed from having gone back to my old haunts – if only to walk the streets, muse about my past, and take a few photos of older me in front of a door that younger me took for granted. I feel lighter somehow, less scattered, more available. Heart filled and buoyant.

 

What would you uncover if you could revisit a childhood home (in person or virtually)? What would you like to honor and release once and for all? What would you like to reclaim and carry forward?

 

If you really want to live these questions now, keep scrolling. Below you'll find some ways to truly refresh... and remember.

 

And, PS, for more photos, videos, and stories of my Mexico City meanderings, see details below.

 

Happy clearing,

Stephanie