House Messages

        Most of us, I suspect,  would like to have the Divine Guidance we seek as we negotiate life's challenges and opportunities, especially when we are in times of crisis or transition.  I have come to realize that I am being guided all the time, if I only keep my spiritual ears and eyes open and learn to receive the messages being offered to me by The Beloved. (That's Rumi's term for God, and I love it!)  

       I grew up learning to expect to be guided by the Bible and sermons and wise Christians.

I found a lot of wisdom as I grew up from great books too, and the teaching of many religions.

I learned from my Native American friends to receive the guidance offered through communion with creation:  the sky, the earth,  all kinds of creatures, and "signs."   

     Just this past week,  it occurred to me that I was surrounded in my house by images (mostly decorative) that had a lot of important messages for me!  I remembered that in Jungian psychology, the house is an Archetypal image for the soul.   I know that in furnishing this house, I had a strong sense of being guided to the things I found to put in this "retreat house" in this very special place called Sedona.  So, I went from room to room, looking at what was there and just letting it "talk to me."    And I took pictures of each thing that seemed significant.  I got enough spiritual direction through the messages that came through these things to keep me pondering for quite a while.  I am so grateful to have discovered this way of receiving Divine Wisdom.   Perhaps you will want to try walking through your home and seeing what things speak messages of Divine Wisdom to you!

      In this and many upcoming blogs, I will be posting pictures of those images/symbols which are giving me wisdom and spiritual direction for this time of transition in my life.  I thought I would share these with those of you who may be reading this blog, as a way of giving you a better sense of my surroundings, and my spiritual journey right now.  I would love to hear your responses via email!

     I begin today with a picture of a banner given as a gift to me by my niece Lenore in gratitude for officiating at her wedding.   It hangs in our house right next to the main entrance/exit, and its words remind me always of the importance of listening to Nature as I leave the house to go on my hikes, or even just sit outside in the back yard under the pine trees.  

     The banner's message hardly needs commentary.  It is just an important reminder to me.

The message I hear from nature today as I sit watching the play of cloud and sunshine, light and shadow, on the red rock peaks across the valley is that I am always being offered the Divine gift of Beauty.  And my heart responds with those beautiful words of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins:

     "Give beauty, beauty, beauty  back to God, Beauty's Self and Beauty's Giver."