Creating Soulful Homes While “Downshifting”
In an age of
disturbing excess, my partner and I began a process of simplifying and “downshifting” (1) several
years ago that has proven to be one of the most joyful times in our lives. We could both afford to live
in a larger, intended-to-impress house. We, in fact, did exactly that in our past marriages.
But we happily choose to live in the first cabin built on the Bret Harte ridge in San Rafael, California in 1914.
Located on a steep hillside, it is surrounded by ancient trees and has a humbling view of Mt. Tamalpais.
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| Magenta sunrise from our deck |
This
mountain is still a very sacred place for the Miwok Indians who used to inhabit the area. For all of us,
it is a daily source of beauty and inspiration. We recently added a small apartment with a deck separate
from the main house. Small free-form paths connect the two buildings, other decks and
a stone patio, engendering the feeling of a small village, said a Dutch guest one summer. There are
varied destinations on the land, most with views of the mountain, where people can go to be alone and quietly reflect, or
be with others.
We did not want a house that spoke of grandeur, pretension, expensive displays, elitism, clutter,
or waste.
"You can change your life by changing your relationship to the 'stuff' that possesses
you." (2)
We
wanted to create a home that is a warm, soulful sanctuary full of original art, bookcases bursting with colorful spines, fires
glowing in a small stone hearth, wonderfully changing natural light—and at the space’s
core, time spent together.
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| Original 1914 fireplace |
“In places and people, we seek the elusive feeling
of being welcomed. We want our homes and apartments to be warm and nurturing and beautiful, but they are
sometimes territories of chaos and confusion. Yet, the haven the soul seeks is close at hand, within the
stove and the cupboard, on the bookshelf, and in the closet. With the eyes to see it, and the hands to
create it, we can recover the home that the soul desires.”
(3A)
Architect Anthony Lawlor gives a myriad of wonderful suggestions
in his book A Home for the Soul. Among his themes is one that espouses the importance of combining
“the elemental forces of fire, water, and earth in a setting that allows us to reconnect with the elusive energies
that ignite, nurture, and transform life.” (3B)
One of Lawlor’s themes that was the most transformational for
me personally has to do with the act of cleaning and maintaining our home:
”The word cleaning conveys [a] spiritual connotation. The roots of the
word clean suggest the purity conferred by a ceremonial anointing with oil. Cleaning in this sense bestows
a blessing on the house or apartment. It makes whole the life of the house. Another
essential component of the spiritual practice is discernment, separating those things that honor the soul from those that
do not. Cleaning is the act of discerning what will benefit our homes and removing what will not.
Accumulating unnecessary and unused objects is a negative side effect in a consumer society…Cleaning allows
is to discern those objects that enhance the flow of soul in the home from those that stifle that flow. It
can provide an avenue for passing on unused items to those who could gain pleasure from them.”
(3C)
For me, viewing the cleaning of our home in this meditational and soulful way has transformed
my entire experience of what used to be often a banal, resented chore. Once again, a paradigm shift in thought enhances
my overall life.
(1) Duane Elgin, The Promise Ahead, New York: HarperCollins
Publishers, 2000, page 82.
(2) Kaja Perina,
Psychology Today, January/ February 2007 issue, page 33.
(3A & 3B & 3C) Anthony Lawlor, A Home for the Soul, New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 1997, introduction
& page 46 & page 38.
