Where's Home?
Taking off on Anthony McCune's View from Your Window , Virtual Tea House is hosting a contest or exercise, for you non-competitive types, about where's home? (Thanks, Tony, for the idea!)
This is probably not a simple exercise. This is not necessarily about your house, although for many of us, it is.
It is about a sense of place or 'site fidelity', and a feeling of safety or comfort. It can be a wild and harsh place, like the edge of a desert canyon, or a more yielding place like a mountain meadow or stream. Or it can be people-related, like your grandmother's garden, your sewing room or your father's workshop.
Tell us about your sacred space called home: physical, emotional, spiritual, or a place in your memory. The winning entries will be sent a packet of heirloom, hand-selected wildflower seeds that I will locate, just to fit the environment where you live or where you call home.
Winning entries will be short: 750 words or less. They will give the readers the feeling of you at your core place--centered, expansive, safe and joyful! Pictures will be extra credit and gladly accepted!
My favorite entry (or entries) will be posted on the Virtual Tea House by the end of June, 2008.
Send your entries to: beth@virtualteahouse.com Make sure to include a way to get in touch with you--email, phone or physical address.
To get you started, here's some pictures from a part of my feeling of home:
The Virtual Tea House website became 'word-ripe' when, over a cup of jasmine green, I realized that the web has an expanding part to play in the communal aspects of spiritual growth.
One of my favorite hats, among several is: initiated firekeeper in the Sacred Fire Community. Hosting a monthly community fire circle, I'm being taught that the simple act of sitting around a fire with the intent of holding open-hearted space makes for some soulful community!
With a master's degree in religion, my career spans 20 years in end of life care and I currently work in the field of child abuse intervention and advocacy.
Here in beautiful Central Oregon, my spiritual homes of the high desert and the mountains are both in proximity. And for good measure, four hours away is Grandmother Ocean and the stunning Oregon Coast.
I'm making decent progress on the goal set by my mother early on: she taught us that the goal of humanity should be to become ever-more eccentric, i.e. more fully human.
Entering the 'forest-dweller' phase of life, I am honored to host the Virtual Tea House for all who wish to explore how our lives are enriched and made new a thousand times each day by the spirituality we embody. Exploring this engagement together is the purpose of the Virtual Tea House.
Welcome! Let's have a cup of virtual tea together and share what brings us joy, what we are being taught by life, how we are leaning into the Big Questions posed to us each day in sometimes 'distressing disguises'.