“May this house shelter your life.
When you come in home here,
May all the weight of the world
Fall from your shoulders.
May your heart be tranquil here,
Blessed by peace the world cannot give.
…..May this be a safe place
Full of understanding and acceptance,
Where you can be as you are,
Without the need of any mask
Of pretense or image.”
~John O’Donohue
This morning I am blessed to be in my house. It is quiet here this morning. Seattle Son has gone back to school for his final year of college. His gentle spirit still lingers in the air. The activity of those headed off to work has settled. No one else is here except the big black dog and ginger cat who are soaking up the sunshine that is floating through the windows. They have appropriately made beds in the warming rays of this autumn morning. The only sounds I hear are the ticking clock, some distant beep of large construction machinery lobbing its warning and the rise and fall of my own breath.
It is pure gift to sit this morning in this house I also call sanctuary. It is the place where I can allow the ‘weight of the world to fall from my shoulders.’ I pray it is also such a place for my family and for those who cross its threshold. The fact that this experience is privilege is not lost on me. I think of all the houses where it is not so.
Many times as I make my way around our cities I find myself looking at houses and wondering about the life that happens in them. Looking at the yard, the front door, what is or isn’t planted outside can give hints about the living that resides. I marvel that I know nothing of those within who carry out their daily tasks much as I do and yet we are traveling companions on this planet. It softens my heart to any judgments I might be inclined to make about tidiness or upkeep. What may be happening within those walls might break my heart or fill me with awe.
Aside from my college and early adult years, I have really lived in only three houses. Each have been sanctuaries for me. Another blessing. There is nothing extravagant or showy about these houses. They have simply been the nests in which I have been able to find a ‘tranquility and peace’ which is often counter to the world’s busyness and rough edges.
Is there a house that has held you in such a way? Are there walls that welcome you when your life is overflowing with sorrow or jumping for joy? This blessing written by Irish poet John O’Donohue who had such a deep sense of the importance of home ends with these words: ‘May you have eyes to see that no visitor arrives without a gift and no guest leaves without a blessing.’,
Today may be a perfect day to walk about the place you call home and offer a prayer for its gift to you. In each of the rooms you might also offer a word for those who do not have the privilege of such shelter. May you, may I, may we have the eyes to see the gifts of the visitors and the blessings of each guest who enters these places that nest us.
Blessed be.
