Little Sacred Spaces

    During the first 42 years of my marriage, I often wished that I had a room of my own. A room that I could keep free of clutter, artfully decorated with my favorite books and momentos. Three years ago when we moved from Oneonta, New York to a new home in Delavan, Wisconsin, I finally had my own room.           My room is a sacred space in itself, a place where I can go to connect with friends and family via my computer, or connect with the Divine in whatever way I feel inspired. Sometimes I light a candle and sit in this chair to meditate, read, journal, or pray.      The little table and the green chair both belonged to my father, and the lace-trimmed handkerchief was my mother's. I like to change the objects on the little table from time to time, but they always include something symbolic of the four elements of Nature, such as the dish of crystals for earth, the blue bird for air, the seashell for water, and the can...

     The hutch that Mark built many years ago is now decorated for  Thanksgiving with symbols of abundance and gratefulness. The book, One Hundred Graces by Marcia and Jack Kelly   was a gift from one of the doctors Mark worked with in Worcester, New York.  This book includes blessings from many traditions, including  Christian and Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist, Islamic and Native American. No matter who or what we believe to be the source of our nourishment, people of every faith offer thanks to show our gratefulness before partaking of the food provided.      The bread plate that says: "Give us this day our daily bread" was a gift from Mark's sister that offers the beginning of a Christian prayer. The whole prayer is in our book and goes like this: Give us this day our daily bread,  O Father in heaven, and grant that we who are filled with good things from Your open hand may never  close our hearts to the hungry,  the homel...

          A good friend of mine just gave me Denise Linn's book: Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines into Your Everyday Life. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in creating a home altar of any kind. Many of her words echo my own thoughts about altars. Linn says: "The urge to create sacred spaces is so deep in the human psyche that we often create them unconsciously. A gathering of photos on a piano, an arrangement of personal objects on a desk or fireplace mantel, are perhaps outer manifestations of an inner desire to establish hallowed and holy spaces in our environment."     When an altar is considered a sacred space where we can deepen our connection with the Divine, Linn calls it a spirit altar. I like to make spirit altars in different parts of my home, and I frequently rearrange them, so their energy is never stagnant.      The backdrop for this altar is a mandala surrounded by symbols of the world's major rel...