Querencia
I’m reading a book—The Safe Place by Anna Downes—and I learned a new word: Querencia. It’s a term from bullfighting (I think?) that refers to the space in the ring where the bull goes to regroup and feel safe. A ring is a circle, and there is nothing special about any particular space. But the bull chooses a place where he feels safe—despite any tangible reason to feel safe—as a favoured spot. It’s where he draws his strength.
Beorn designated the corner closest to the basement door as his querencia. He naps there, sometimes with his eyes open, watching me, and other times resting and flicking his ears, listening for the twins to come upstairs. There is nothing different about that corner except that he chose it.
I realized how much my bed is an emotional querencia. I go there to think, regroup, relax in the evening. It would be more comfortable to read on the sofa, but I usually head up and make a little nest of glasses of water and books and notebooks around me on the bed. I’m aware this behaviour probably adds to my insomnia, but it’s where I recharge.
Where is your querencia?
5 comments
I have never heard this word! When I want a few minutes alone in my house, I generally go sit in our front room. It is designed to be a formal living and dining room but because we don’t have a need for these rooms, it’s a combination library/music room that has also recently been used as our remote learning classroom.
It’s the last place anyone looks for me, so I am guaranteed a few minutes before I am discovered.
My sewing room. It’s calming. And I really like my fabric stash. I was having a tough moment today and went in there, sat down, and just put my head down on the table. I didn’t sew anything or even organize. Just being in there was comforting. And I just learned to sew two years ago so both sewing and having a comforting space to go are new for me. I’m grateful.
I heard this word for the first time this year, at a memorial service for a friend who died from Covid-19 (and I am fluent in Spanish). He was survived by his wife and daughter, and his wife said “how am I going to go on without him, my querencia?” I am still broken hearted by this.
Oh wow, this really speaks to me. My place is also my bed. I just need that retreat when things are too much, its the only place that feels safe sometimes. Our room in general I guess, but the bed is the only place to sit so…
Those people find me anywhere I go in my house. :/