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Furnishing Our Spiritual Home Parenting Coach and creator of Wisdomology.com, Lauren Rosenfeld, shares her thoughts about creating a home that is filled with the Divine Presence. |
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"Who has not found heaven below Will fail of it above. God's residence is next to mine, His furniture is love." - Emily Dickinson "Like all concrete beings, man occupies a place in physical space. However, unlike other beings, his authentic existence goes on in an inner space." - Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Each family resides in two homes simultaneously. Consider first the physical home. Whether it is a house or an apartment, whether it sits amidst the bustle of a great city or beside a quiet mountain stream, we furnish our homes with great attention to the way that it will shelter, accommodate, and nourish the lives within. What we choose to bring into the home says much about what we value in life: If we love to cook, if we enjoy watching our families eat with gusto and appreciation, we fill our kitchens with the pots, pans and utensils that will turn raw ingredients into marvelous meals. If we love art, we will spend hours arranging and rearranging the pictures on the walls, paying attention which light best reveals their beauty. We imagine how best to expose the artworks' finest aesthetic and emotional details. We pay attention to the feeling the art creates in each room and the mood it evokes. If we love to read, we fill our shelves with well-worn books, so that we have at our fingertips the information that clarifies our understanding, the wisdom that inspires our minds, the poetry that brings our emotions to surface, and the tales that reflect our inner longings. And then there is the spiritual home in which our families reside. Rabbi Heschel explains that within each human, there is an inner space that is the locus of our authentic being. And just as there is an authentic inner dimension within each human life, there is an authentic inner dimension within each family's life. This inner space, lit from within with the Ruach Ha-Shem - the Spirit of the Divine - is our family's true home. Here in this home, food for the spirit is ladled out with affection. Here inner beauty, turned lovingly to the light that is its source, is displayed to its greatest advantage. Here, clarity of purpose, wisdom of the mind, poetry of the heart, and tales of the soul's yearning constantly inform the lives within. This is the House in which the Divine resides. This is the House that is furnished with Love. We should take as much care in furnishing our spiritual home as we do in our physical home. We should be just as discerning in choosing what we will bring into it. We should feel just as uncomfortable when it begins to fill with stray belongings that we neither need nor want. We should guard the doors of this home just as carefully as we would our physical homes. What will be welcomed at the threshold? What should be turned away? How can we protect and nurture the life within this spiritual home? It is after all, our primary residence. And it is also the home that our children and our children's children will inherit. It is the home that will be passed on l'dor va dor. As the Days of Awe approach, may each of you find a taste of the world to come in your home. May the Divine Presence take up residence not just next to your residence, but within it. May your home be a reflection of all you really are and who you truly aim to be. Let it be a home worthy of your children and all their descendents. May you live within it a life of health and happiness. A life fulfilled. A life brimming with the glow of Divine Spirit. A life abundant with love. | |