Sacred Spaces and Ourselves

Happy Friday.... It's looking like snow here in Greensboro bringing with it excitement and a busyness with early school releases, scrambling with what to do with work and childcare.  It  also brings a stillness and joy with warm fires, hot cocoa and happy children who can think of nothing better than getting out of school early.  I am looking forward to the weekend.

I have been thinking a lot about sacred spaces this week.  What is a sacred space?  What do they look like and why they are important in our lives?  I refer to my studio as a sacred space. This week I have been thinking more about why that is...  I know the main reason is that my dad was huge in creating my studio space for me.  He helped our family turn a dream into a reality all because he loved me and my family.  He wanted me to have a space to create, a space for us to work and a space for our kids to play and make memories with their friends.  Really, that love given from him to me, that in itself makes it a sacred space.  A place to be ourselves, to share and be with friends and a place to grow ourselves into more of who we were created to be..... a place to just be and that's all.

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself 
again and again 

~ Joseph Campbell

You must have a room or a certain hour of the day or so where you do not know what is in the morning paper.  A place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are or might be.

~ Joseph Campbell

There are times I am so quick to jump into the day... to check in on fb, check the paper, online news...  It is not a bad thing to want to check in, to want to know what is happening around us.  I believe we all desire to be connected with one another.  Connection with other human beings is sacred in its own right.  It is to be cherished.  But to have a time like Joseph Campbell says in the quote above really struck me.  To have a time before it all... all the checking in... to take a moment to center and be with oneself.  I believe this is a truth worth listening too.  To step into the day with a strength about you, a quiet knowing of who you are.. what you are looking to see in this day... even giving yourself the chance to say... I am not excited about this day.  It is like giving ourselves an honest beginning to the day an opening to bring forth who we are and might be in our experiences.  I only say this as a reminder to myself to take the time, take the time to know me as I enter into each day.  Where am I starting from?  It is time not wasted.

Brian Andreas says it quite well in the quote on this sculpture
I have it hanging on the front of my studio.... 

"I've always liked the time before dawn because there's no one around to remind me who I'm supposed to be so it's easier to remember who I am."  ~ Brian Andreas

I love the idea of finding a nook in my home and creating a space for reading, meditating and or snuggling.

Thailand sacred spaces.

So after contemplating the week and being honest with myself I think these cold days have had me in a little bit of a creative funk.  After looking at sacred spaces and being inspired by the beauty of kindred spirits in the creative world I am ready for more creative days in the studio.  I am ready to spend quiet times in sacred spaces tending to matters of the heart and enjoy days of creative freedom.  

I am also looking forward to Spring.  I am not one to hasten on the Seasons because I think we need all of them, each for their own different gifts and reasons.  I can see how Winter is such a quiet and still time.  It's a time where we can't see the growth that is happening under ground but we all know it is there.  I feel that way about the world right now.  I see things happening in so many hearts of people I know and love.  Growth is happening.  We may not always be able to see it on the surface but it is there.  

Soon enough Spring will be here.  We will all be glad to throw open our windows, shake out our rugs and get our hands in the dirt.  We will breathe in new life.  Life will be visibly blooming in front of our eyes.  At times I have to remind myself that even now, on the colder days, a deeper growing is happening.... it's just not always visible at first glance.   Enjoy the weekend and all you experience.