Write At Home

Photo A.M. Moscoso

I think I’m pretty lucky.

When I’m at home I’m in a good place to write, contemplate, eat popcorn and relax with my dog and my cat. I have some artwork by Von Stuck and my stepson hanging on the walls and a pretty impressive collection of gargoyles. I have a jade plant that in the last two years has thrived instead of dying a horrible death the way most of my indoor plants do.

Sometimes though a little Spring cleaning is in order because your space can get crowded. Maybe a better way to put it is this- things get a little cramped and when you write like I do, every square inch of the space around you is important because you will end up using it.

I don’t mean that I have lots of stuff- because I don’t. I’m not big on material stuff. What I mean is the baggage that we try to store in our emotional lockers and sometimes what we pack away escapes.

My emotional locker always starts off all by it’s lonesome and it has it’s place in a corner where it gets a little sun and fresh air and I think it’s fine and then BOOM it finds a way to multiply and before you know it, there are a couple of them needing my attention and I have to go through them.

Keep it or toss it’s a process and I have enough to do without adding that to my list.

So this year I decided to address that in my Spring Cleaning.

What I wanted to do was literally clear my space and let the fresh air in so that I could have loads of room to let my imagination and the Muses have all the space they need to bounce off the walls, scoot down the hall zip in and out of the rooms and dream big.

So I called my Son and asked him to do a Cleansing Ceremony.

I’ve never been part of that sort of ritual before so I was pretty excited about it.

The Ceremony is quiet, the ritual itself invites you to meditate and contemplate what your space should feel like, what would you like to accomplish in it and most important of all- what sort of energy do you want to fill your space with?

The most fascinating part was the beginning when my Son entered a meditative state. He focused on his breathing, he concentrated or maybe a better way to put it is he visualized the space he was in with the goals I had in mind.

Just as a side note, when he did that my dog Hamish sat next to him and watched my son- specifically he watched the space behind my son in a perfect sit and stay position for almost a good five minutes. I didn’t put Hamish there and I didn’t tell him to sit and stay at attention. He did that on his own.

Interesting.

Then my Son organized the small stones into these little rows, he lit a candle and instead of sage he what he burned almost smelled like dill with a touch of citrus and he cleansed the spaces in my home with tiny hints of smoke but mostly scent.

When we were done we talked about keeping focused on what comes into my home and what needs to leave, which I liked.

Those emotional trunks are a chore you know? I have other things to do and I need the space they take up for simply being and creating in.

This is what I really enjoyed about this Ceremony- it’s a way to fill the space around you with the things you choose to fill it with.

For me it’s writing. I love to write. I want as much space around me for that as possible because when I write I feel like I am 100% me and I am doing exactly what I should be doing.

Plus it makes me feel like I’m part of that space and not just visiting it until I leave for work, or scuttle off to do chores or take out the trash and fetch the mail. I feel like I belong there.

This morning I saw some of the little stones my son set around my home in my bedroom window. It made me smile.

I think my Spring Cleaning did exactly what I hoped it would do.

There are some pictures at the bottom of this post from the Cleansing Ceremony. As you will see, it’s nothing elaborate but in doing something like this I don’t think you’d want that.

amm