Chapter 1: WELCOME HOME

The Oxford dictionary definition of the word “home” is: the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. This couldn’t have been further from my truth for most of my life. I spent my teens and twenties moving between houses, between “families,” never quite settling or feeling secure. Until I was thirty years old, I hadn’t stayed in the same house for much longer than a year after leaving the 1924 bungalow I grew up in and left in my early teens.

My understanding of the word home was unconventional; it became wherever was safe and familiar. It was friends’ houses, the grimy rock ‘n’ roll bar I frequented for the short time I spent living in Sydney; it was the music shop I worked at with my two bosses who took me in and treated me as one of their own.

Instead of investing in my living spaces, I poured all I had into creative projects that offered escape. I spent much of my time “on the run,” seeking solace outside of the four walls that were supposed to feel safest. It was hard to view anywhere as permanent when all I’d known for years was packing, moving, and living out of suitcases.

It wasn’t until my early thirties that “home” in its traditional sense really registered with me; it was when I met someone whose soul was sympatico with mine and we decided to intertwine our lives to share the same living space. Home became the beautiful old Victorian style/Edwardian era house with white timber floorboards, high ceilings, intricate fireplaces and a long hallway. It became the place where I had my very own back garden with a fig tree, where we would picnic and play chess. Home became my refuge, my place of both comfort and joy—where I would wake up next to my partner before being greeted by our two black cats each morning. It became my favourite place.

It has been through this journey that Venus in Scorpio Trading Co. was born. Falling in love with the place of which I reside and all it encompasses has been incredibly beautiful and soothing for my soul—an experience I wanted to offer even a very small part of with others.

This is just one chapter of the beginnings of Venus in Scorpio Trading Co.  

♱ Susannah ♱