frailty

'Everything breathes again

The tablecloth is white'

 (Rene Cazelles, de terre et d'envolee, 1953 quoted in Bachelard, below) 

'It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality' 

(Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space p. 61)

having and remembering

Marguerite Duras 

Having a home is something that is mostly taken for granted. The Genworth Mortgage Trends Report (2009) found that 58% of Australians own a house, while 89% have or aspire to have a mortgage.

A house is a primary symbol, an early drawing, and a place that holds early relationships within its walls. It is the place from and within which we run our lives, a place we return to and store our things, a place that many use to represent something of the ego, and a place for our families to live and grow. 

For many a house represents nurturing and safety: Gaston Bachelard describes it as a cradle. Duras describes the home (along with the mother) as absolute protection against abandonment, being swept away, or being taken by surprise. It is something that, traditionally, a father provides, and a mother makes. 

A home is an intimate space, which exists in time, that is, it exists in memory. Who doesn't remember their childhood home? Some don't.