Whatever It Is, Wherever it Is, Find it And Allow Your Being To Live

“Just like the falling down house with its story to tell, it is easy to forget or neglect our spiritual selves especially when the storms around us are raging, Take time for you. Do what you have to do to tend to your spirit. Whatever it is, wherever it is, find it and allow your being to live.”

A few weeks ago, a friend and I went on a road trip to the Brule Shore. Along the way we came upon this old, falling down house. The places like this strewn throughout our province have always intrigued me. I immediately wonder about its story – what was it like when it was shiny and new? Who lived and died here? If the walls could talk, what stories would they tell? Why was it left to ruin?

The Place Where The Chimney Stood

My friend and I stopped to look around. Although it was falling down you could see the outline of a variety of rooms; the place where the chimney stood; openings that once were windows and a door. At one time this place was loved and lived in. I always feel a certain amount of sadness when I come upon a place like this.

A place ends up like this for many reasons I imagine. Those who once called it home have moved on in their lives; perhaps the family it belonged to has long since left this realm and there was no one left to care for it – just a couple of possibilities. But whatever the reason for leaving it behind, this is what happens when there is no one to care for it, no one to tend to its needs, no one to repair the damages that come with life. This is a house, but I think that the same things happens to our spirits when they are not tended. As the trials and tribulations of life crash in upon us we too can easily become beaten and battered and in order to flourish we need to have those parts of ourselves that are broken, mended and renewed. It is easy to forget or neglect our spiritual selves especially when the storms around us are raging and when that continues for too long I think we begin to resemble this house.

Whatever It Is, Wherever it Is, Find it And Allow Your Being To Live

Each of us will find our spiritual renewal in different places and in a variety of ways but it is important that we take the time to care for ourselves. Perhaps yours comes as you commune with nature; perhaps you find it in the company of others; perhaps your spirit is tended as you immerse yourself in the pages of a good book or get lost in the majesty of music; perhaps it comes as you create things with wool, or material, or wood, or food – whatever it is, wherever it is, find it and allow your being to live. You have a story to share, a life to live, and love to give.

It seems the blessings of John O’Donohue are resonating with me of late and so I leave you with another one as you go into this day and week:

On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble,
may the clay dance to balance you.

And when your eyes freeze behind the gray window
and the ghost of loss gets into you,
may a flock of colours, indigo, red , green and azure blue,
come to waken in you a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays in the curragh of thought and a stain of ocean blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home

May the nourishment of earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you,
an invisible cloak to mind your life.

Blessings
Valerie