Sanctuary

A sanctuary is a sanctum, a sacred and protected place of beauty, grace and refuge. Our home and garden is a sanctuary for body and soul; it embraces us and brings us back to center. When we take sanctuary, even for brief moments, we are re-created, recharged, healed, soothed, comforted and at peace.

This week I hope to continue to define and upgrade our sanctum; it's an ongoing discipline of inner work (seeking inspiration, and upgrading my habits) and projects (creating a place of peace that expresses who we are).

Agenda:

1. Journal queries on home and family

2. Word #4 - Discipline

3. Resolutions review

4. Sanctuary practices

1. Journal queries on home and family:

These are queries from the North Pacific Yearly Meeting book of Faith and Practice--

How do we make our homes places of friendliness, peace, and renewal, where God is real for those who live there and those who visit?

How do we maintain a climate of love and trust in our meeting which invites families to be open about their satisfactions and challenges? 

How do we keep commitments outside the home from encroaching on the time and loving attention the family needs for its health and well-being? 

Does our home life support our need for both a sense of personal identity and shared living? 

What supports do we offer to the aging, the widowed, the separated or divorced, and members of families affected by disruption or trauma? 

How does the meeting assist families to improve communication, family life, and the rearing of children in a context of love?

2. Word #4 - Discipline:

I'm reading a Pendle Hill pamphlet called Marking the Quaker Path: Seven Key Words Plus One, by Robert Griswold. This speaks to the condition of many Friends in my Meeting, who are ready to go deeper on this journey, and a large group of us are studying this booklet together this year.

The word this month is Discipline, which I started write about yesterday.

Discipline is a muscle that requires exercise. Being a Quaker is like perfecting a craft. "The discipline needed is the discipline of Quaker practice called 'good order' or 'Gospel order'. ... Our outrageous aim as Quakers is to discern the truth of Reality - and align our actions with the truth. We won't come close to that goal without discipline".

Quaker practice is slippery, because it doesn't have a set form. Early Quakers saw that the prayers and ceremonies of the Church were easily corrupted and could become prideful, so we have adopted the "discipline of silent presence." 

Griswold suggests that our personal practice should include daily silence, study, encouraging other Friends to question us about our inner life and the trajectory our life is taking, and deep listening to what is said by others. He says our spiritual disciplines are like tending the inner garden.

He also says that committee work is essential: "When we work with other Friends we learn that some of the certainties ... we have been carrying need to be examined. The Light coming through other Friends may shine into corners unfamiliar to us... Sharing work teaches us to bring our love, courage, and patience to our service. These lessons do not take root in us by our thinking about them or wishing for them. They become our humble strength by practice".

He ends this section by talking about the importance of listening  deeply to each other. "To build the trust needed for us to work together we need to cultivate a heart that can hear and eyes that can see all that is said or not said. ... As Friends we are required to cultivate the discipline of listening compassionately ..."

3. Resolutions review:

Speaking of discipline, I'm reviewing my New Year's resolutions this week and setting some small practices. I talked about my first resolution yesterday. The second is: 

Sanctuary: I intend to care for my land with discipline and ritual, and create a home that is a peaceful and well-ordered sanctuary for those I love, because maintaining my land in good order is the honorable and sustainable thing to do, and is one way that I show reverence for the Earth and for God.

What I like about this resolution is that it encompasses my home, my land, my family and friends, the Earth and God. It helps me to de-compartmentalize my life and see it as a whole.

 

4. Sanctuary practices: 

• Cleaning: I'm finishing up a month of cleaning away the mold and mildew in my house, and this week I'll work on our bedroom and my study, cleaning the mildew from the walls and windows with detergent and warm water, then use a solution of Borax, and don't rinse, to help prevent mold from growing again.
  
• Farming: I've re-introduced ducks to our land, after a two month break (Welcome home Permelia, and our new Swedish duck, Anka!) The practice of opening the coop at dawn, feeding, cleaning, and putting them to bed again at dusk feels like a healing connection to the land.
• Team talk: Last year I began a practice of printing out a daily page of garden inspiration and the day's list of garden tasks, putting it on a clipboard and finding a few minutes in the morning to discuss them with my partner. It was helpful for us both to have a discipline of talking and listening to each other (you'd think after almost 50 years together we'd have that down, but no) and the visuals gave us a starting place for musing about possibilities. I need to institute this practice again!
• Grandson projects: I want to include my grandson more often in cleaning, gardening, cooking, and farm work. This week I'll pick one task to engage him in each day he's with us.