Home Keeping

Whether it’s a few pots by a fire in Burma or a state of the art home in the hills of Los Angeles homemakers take what they have and create a safe space for themselves and their families. Like an artist who faces a blank white page and fills it with the contents of her imagination, homemakers take lifeless, everyday materials and infuse them with livingness, safety and order. Ours is not a celebrated art form, perhaps because of its day in and day out quality, the constant creation and destruction involved, and its mercurial, timeless nature. But it is just as vital as any other art form that infuses the culture with possibility.

I wanted to send along this little reminder to my Hearth family. Hearth tending is at the core of my practice and through the years has continued to sustain me during difficult times. This week I found myself sick and stuck at home. All the memories of being sick with CFS when I was raising Nicole on my own came flooding back. In my panic I cleaned the kitchen.  Sometimes when life becomes overwhelming all we can do is create a little pocket of order, feel what we are feeling and ride it out. This is where meditation can add its support as a great refuge.

Homemaking and meditation are a powerful pairing. Creating a home filled with light, beauty, safety and wholesomeness addresses our human need to create order out of chaos. Meditating with choiceless awareness addresses our need to embrace the unpredictability of life in a safe space. This is where the rubber meets the road. While sitting watching the breath fear of the chaos settles down, we’re safe in the moment.  We can extend that moment to the next and the next and the next. Chaos becomes just one more thing to note before returning to the breath.

Our work will not be placed in a museum nor will it receive applause. It is practiced throughout the world and throughout time without recognition. It is the framework on which human progress is built. We can reframe our daily tasks as opportunities to practice, remind ourselves that we are creating art in our home and enjoy the magic of becoming more awake. Ours is a practical art form, a practical spiritual practice. I invite you to consider the power of the beauty and order you are creating in the world by how you tend your home. Honor your everyday expressions of life.