Slowing down, taking time for yourself and establishing new habits that will last a lifetime.
Theme - Blessing Your Home
The focus was to notice what happens when you take the time to bless and honour the spaces you call home.
What shifts (if any) do you notice when you up the energies in your home and property?
I am a firm believer that it is not the fabric of a place that makes a great home but the feelings that are emitted from the people and the desire to live there.
The house I live in now is always a relatively happy place anyway, with an undercurrent grounded in love and friendship. It is not perfect but that is the nature of the game when people choose to spend their lives together. My Nan always maintained that if everything was always amicable, easy and without issues then it wasn’t a proper relationship and, more to the point it could never be truly fulfilling and probably wouldn’t stand the test of time.
There is just the two of us now and the kids have never lived here so it feels like ours and ours alone rather than a family place. We have a very quiet lifestyle, with the occasional bursts of madness (naturally).
Have you noticed a difference between thinking a blessing, invoking a blessing out loud, and beaming your blessing outwards to envelop the entire property?
I’m not sure this works for us here as already said, our home is a happy one anyway. It has a calmness about it even though there is mayhem with the plethora of animals sometimes. They are all so enthusiastic about everything, especially about food and the love they have for each other and us, so much so that other people comment on it. So, I think the bubble of golden light would struggle to compete with what is already here.
What is it about your home that you are most grateful for?
There are a lot of things, probably too many to recall them all off the top of my head.
A few I am grateful for are …
- The amazing location. I am lucky enough to have a study with a desk in front of the window looking straight out to sea and across to the Isle of Arran.
- No mortgage, which means that I can stay at home and concentrate on being a writer.
- The design. It is big enough to give the illusion of loads of space whilst being practical.
- Where it is in relation to buses, shops etc.
- The tranquillity. Although in a row of semi-detached houses and on the very edge of an estate it is usually so quiet that the sound of the waves on the shore and the smell of the seaweed carry right to the front of the house.
- The haven we have created in the back garden and the animals and birds that have found their way to it. Also, the wildlife that is right outside our widow on the coast.
In what ways does honouring your home honour you?
I think we all go through life with the desire for our ideal job, family, lifestyle and home, but a lot of the times these things are unrealistic, so we have to make do or compromise. Sometimes some of it comes to fruition but often that takes time.
This is how it is for me and this house. I have always had visions of living right by the coast, with sea views from every window on a wild rugged peninsular, miles from anywhere. Roses around the door would be a bonus but as I love gardening that would not be an issue. The reality is that by the time we were in a position to make that happen we had other things to consider.
We were no longer in the prime of youth. The spirit was often willing, but the body had other ideas. Chopping wood and faffing about with an open fire had somehow lost the magic appeal it once had, central heating was more practical especially as we were not going to get any younger as the years progressed. The drawbacks of remote and isolated were many. Transport was a big one as I no longer drive, shopping, doctors, emergency services, a hospital nearby (just in case) all had to be carefully thought about.
That is when compromises came into play but the one thing that was never going to be forsaken was the sea view.
So, the remit … sea view, close to public transport, shops and all amenities nearby but remote enough for it to be calm and peaceful. A tall order maybe, but we were in no hurry.
The house we are in had come on the market a year before we were in a position to buy. It was ideal and ticked all the boxes. Right on the west coast of Scotland overlooking the Isle of Arran, with an expanse of green grass between it and the sea, it was semi-detached, ex-corporation construction which means huge rooms and a very large garden … the train station was a short walk away, with a fast service to Glasgow and buses were frequent, but more importantly it was at the end of the town that was not on any tourist map.
I fell in love with it but knew there was no way it would be available for long.
Skip forward a year and we’d decided to visit the area for a long weekend to have a good look around. Low and behold a few days before we were due to travel the same house came back on the market.
Naturally, we wanted to see it.
Unfortunately, there were no viewings available until the tenant had moved out and by that time we would be back in England. Undeterred we checked it out ourselves, well at least the location. The walk along the miles of beach was amazing and standing with my back to the gatepost I could see the sea, which meant that the views from upstairs would be incredible.
Monday morning, just before we were due to head back, we visited the estate agents. Unsurprisingly, there were loads of people on the list to view it and some had put in a tentative pre-offer. The deal in Scotland is that once you put in a firm offer and it is accepted then that is a legally binding contract that cannot be overturned.
I wanted that house.
I had never been so sure about anything, so in a fit of madness we offered the asking price, without the need for a viewing, but the vendors had got to give us an answer straight away.
They said yes, naturally (well they couldn’t really turn down an offer like that) and so we walked away having brought a house we had not seen the inside of and hadn’t a clue what it was like. However, the one thing that could never change was the view we had fallen in love with and everything else was just cosmetic. If it took us a lifetime to change it to our liking well so be it, we were never intending to move again so time was on our side with that one.
Even after being here years, we still look out of the window at the views and the sunsets constantly and pinch ourselves.
The house mantra, which is said in awe and often is … ‘We live here!’
Views from the study window.