HOW TO CREATE A HAVEN

Start with intention. What are you seeking to accomplish? Do you hope to express your innermost self, honor a significant relationship, accommodate children, comfort one who is suffering? All of the above? Eliminate clutter. To create a sense of tranquility, limit the sensory input to a comfortable level. Visitors to Healing Environments are always struck by its sense of peace, but how to accommodate the chaos of life? Hide it as much as possible. Place it in closets or aesthetic containers: baskets, armoires, etc.

Surround yourself with things you love. When I moved into a small house after my divorce, my former husband said: "So this is what you wanted for twentythree years!" A friend said that the rooms were so infused with who I was that it looked like a giant sandtray. if you surround yourself with things you love, Your home will have a natural beauty and coherence. Consider including things with age, cultural artifacts, objects crafted by hand and heart, symbols with significance. Celebrate life and your own sense of identity.

Honor your past. Sift through old letters and photographs to document your life. Frame a love letter. Surround a missing loved one's photo to with flowers. Ancient cultures have always integrated the spiritual into the home; create a shrine to honor your past and frame your future.

Revere your dreams. Consider creating an "altar" on which to place a symbolic representation of what you wish in your life. At Healing Environments we keep a current issue of our newsletter on the tatami mat in the meditation room. At home I keep a card with each child's name on my tiny chapel's altar.

Create a ritual. Frame your day. I' check into my tiny closet chapel morning and evening. Monks in monasteries bless each time of day with prayer. Ritual can be used to transcend both time and distance. When my co-worker David and I were separated during my vacation, we maintained a sense of connection by meditating at the same time each day: nine a.m. in California, six p.m. in Greece. In pre-industrial times, man was grounded by his connection to the earth. In this age of computers and cell phones we must consciously struggle to maintain a sense of eternity amidst the pace of technology.

Strive for transcendence. With whatever means possible, try to imbue your home with a physical representation of a higher or deeper level of reality. It is this which will sustain you through difficult times and ground you and your loved ones.

Include music. Find the music which best speaks to you and make it the background of your life. Use it, as Shakespeare once said, "to knit up the ravelled sleeve of care."

Incorporate nature. Nothing speaks to one's place in the universe more than nature. Whether the serenity of a beautiful orchid, the joy of a canary's song, the lush growth of a fern, or the purring of a cat — nature, plant or animal, by, placing us in the larger context of the natural world.

Make your art healing art. Select art which speaks to you and affirms your deepest longings. Art which reflects who you are'. Art with meaning.

Bless your home. Bless yourself You are a child of the universe. You deserve comfort, honor, reverence. Your life is sacred and deserves to be framed lovingly and with intention. You deserve a healing environment, a healing home, a haven. Give thanks.