I continue to settle in. Went for a walk this morning. I got back from taking the boys to school (E’s friend A has been staying with us a lot–I don’t mind, he’s a really good kid and I like him) and came back with the intent to walk but once I got inside, the sleepies nearly took over. However, I can feel myself becoming more deconditioned and I don’t like that, so I did my stretching routine in the doorway and then a walk around the neighborhood. I have to say that I have entirely loved our long, lingering spring. We have had much rain, cool weather, cloudy days–more cloudy days in a row than I can remember since moving here. It’s nearly June and I don’t think we’ve had more than a day or so above 80 degrees, if at all. Suits me! Now I’m back and trying to work on, or begin, a project that popped into my mind this week.
At the other place, I had a meditation room, complete with altar. This was a large buffet/sideboard type cabinet that I inherited when my second husband passed. His grandfather had built it. It’s nothing fancy, but quite roomy and serviceable and a perfect height for me. It was excellent for an altar and storage for DVDs, extra quilting fabric, vacuum cleaner parts, etc. Now, this cabinet is in the living room with the TV on it and it’s doubling as extra kitchen storage for my stand mixer, crock pot, etc. When I decided to move, that was my intended purpose for it, but leaves me without much space for an official altar. I have several bookcases (two in the bedroom) and my dresser, but the bookcases are small and the dresser (at least right now) is too busy with other things.
However. I do have a sweet little space right outside my front door. This is a tiny little grotto under the stairs going up to the upper unit. It’s graveled over, it’s dry and protected from the weather (aside from post rain dripping from the stairs), and the other day, it suddenly called out for me to create something sacred there, or rather, to coax out or allow the sacredness already there to come forward. There’s also a rose bush right next to it, and a couple of small, flat rocks that I could put a little bird feeder on.
So, I’ve decided to start hitting the thrift stores to create my little outdoor altar. I already have a few small items, but I want some kind of a base, a small rug or carpet remnant to lay down first, and a Buddha or Kwan Yin, or just the right angel–I’ll know it when I see it. Of course, this will give me an excuse to hit garage sales, too, so it’s a win/win. I have a small set of wind chimes in the shape of a lovely Green Man that I got as a gift long ago. This has never hung outside, only in the meditation room, so it’s time for that to be up and in the breeze, too. And maybe I’ll add a hummingbird feeder. I heard hummers in the air this morning on my walk. If you hang it, they will come…
I’m excited about this. I feel good about having a calm and sacred space right as I enter and exit. I’m about 99% sure that no one will mess with it and if anyone does, it would probably be a curious kid, and that’s okay. But the beauty of it will be that unless someone is really looking at it, the whole area will be mostly invisible.
And isn’t that the way of the sacred? It often hides from us until and unless we stare right at it, and even then, it takes us a while to realize what we’re looking at. Sacredness is around us all the time–in nature, in our relationships (with others and with ourselves) and most of the time we pass it right over on the way to checking our next text message or e-mail. I want that little space there at my threshold to remind me, as I leave the house and as I enter, that blessings and sacred space are everywhere. All I have to do is slow down a little and open my eyes.
Blessed be.
Get On With It 