INNER COMPASS: Use yours....

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Recently, on my daily walk in the park, I met a turtle. I was doing a walking meditation out in nature, and all of a sudden, in the middle of the walkway, right next to a road, I saw a turtle. As I approached, the turtle crouched a little, but didn’t retreat completely into its shell. I stopped for a moment to admire its beauty and tenacity. And although I was hesitant to interfere with its journey, I decided to carry the turtle across the road so it would be safe from unsuspecting or careless drivers, as I figured it was on its way to the nearby pond. So we journeyed together for a little while—the turtle and I—and as I set it down and turned away to continue my walk, I wished it well.

Since the encounter, I have wondered whether the turtle has thought about me as much as I have thought about it. Because I have thought about it a great deal—not so much immediately afterwards, but later. It was the next day, in fact, and a dear friend casually mentioned the word “home” to me in conversation. And in that instant I was struck absolutely still as the concept of home seized me, and totally captured my attention. And in the very next instant I remembered the turtle. And then I knew on what topic I was going to speak during my next public lecture: mobile homes.

You see, the turtle takes its home with it everywhere it goes. We think of turtle in this way because its shell provides both shelter and protection. And turtles generally roam about in their environments, rather than coming and going from one place. They certainly don’t make nests or burrows, or come and go from one particular place it claims in its territory, as some other animals tend to do.

I can relate to turtle and its mobile home. My very first home was literally a mobile home, although I don’t remember it at all, as we moved out before I was a year old. In fact, my family moved households twelve times before I was graduated from high school. I also claim the turtle as one of my totem animals, as I learned several years ago in my studies of Native American spirituality.

So, a mobile home: the idea of taking along one’s home wherever one goes. There’s a freedom in traveling around, and setting up “camp” for a while, then moving on. Several indigenous peoples around the world have long histories of doing just that. Native Americans come to mind immediately. I think of the peoples of North Africa and the Middle East in their tents and caravans.

There’s also an efficiency of living that this lifestyle demands. One takes along only what one needs; there are no collections to carry, no big “stores” of things to be schlepped around, no heavy furniture to move. Sometimes I feel a longing to do this myself. I’ve thought about taking a nice, long “road trip,” across North America, exploring parts of the country I haven’t yet seen, going at a comfortable pace, with this feeling of freedom and efficiency. It’s very appealing to me.

And yet, I also love the idea of settling in one place for a while. A long while. Putting down roots. Nesting. "Come on in, stay a while, relax! Make yourself at home." I love everything about home. I love making a home, I love staying home, I love living at home and all the things that entails.

It’s no wonder because both my given name and my birth date numerologically come out to the number six, which suggests that I have a strong desire for harmonious and beautiful surroundings, that I am very “home-based”. I also claim the beaver as one of my totem animals. And the architect is definitely one of my archetypes—one to which I very strongly relate. My natural affinity for architecture and interior design emerged while I was still a child. I began drawing floor plans of my ideal home when I was nine years old. I played with my doll house only to arrange and rearrange the furniture and the rooms; once that was done, I was done—I never, ever played with the dolls that went with my doll house. At the same age, I designed and created fairy gardens in my yard too.

My love of creating harmonious and beautiful surroundings has continued well into my adult years. More than once I considered changing careers and becoming an Interior Designer. And while I’ve not made that change, and I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be in terms of my vocation—my life’s work, my calling—I thoroughly enjoy doing those kinds of activities whenever I get the opportunity.

I teach a lot of classes in my private practice as an intuitive life coach, and I always take care in arranging the room, in getting the space just right. nevitably some people come early, and some of them want to help with the setup, and others like to watch me and even make gentle fun of my desire to have everything be “just so.” But the space has to feel right. Anyone who has studied Feng Shui or Sacred Space, as I have, knows how important the environment is to the activities that take place there. The environment can enhance, or it can distract.

I’ve been thinking a lot about home recently in other ways as well. Recently in my personal life, I had to decide whether to keep my former home of 20 years, or let it go to the Universe. This situation brings to me other, related decisions to make as well. Where do I want to be? How do I want to live? What do I want my home to be like? It is both frightening and very, very exciting to think about this.

We build, we nurture, we live in, these physical spaces that we call “home.” And these physical structures are very, very important in our lives. For one thing, our homes are outward reflections of our inner selves. If we live in a cluttered environment, it is likely that we also are experiencing mental and emotional clutter or confusion. Conversely, if our home environment is open and freeflowing, it is likely we are likewise moving with the currents in our lives—in the flow, so to speak. If our home is productive and prosperous or stuck and poor, if it is easygoing and fortunate or uptight and unlucky, healthy and thriving or decaying and ruinous—whatever the characteristics of our home may be, it shows us absolutely and with the fullest, most complete possible expression who we have become and to what extent we are allowing ourselves to express and experience ourselves: our thoughts, our emotions, our actions.

Our physical homes are also important because they nurture and support us. They are where we rest, rejuvenate, reflect, refresh, recreate, relax, ___.

Our true home is really our source, if you think about it—that from whence we came. We are spiritual beings having a human experience, remember? So we know that “life is but a dream.” At the deepest, innermost experience of ourselves, we are eternal. We are spirit. We are source.

And that brings me back to the idea of carrying our homes with us wherever we go. During Seminary, I learned a lot about creating sacred space. I learned about dowsing, and space clearing, and how to read the energy of a place and how to change it for specific purposes. But the most important thing we learned was how to carry sacred space with us—how to make ourselves, our bodies—a home or temple for that which is sacred. And if you have that, what need you care about the outside environment? How can it affect you negatively? You walk into a room where an argument has just taken place, and you are unaffected by that energy.

You create sacred space with intention. It’s that simple. You can burn sage, ring bells, sprinkle holy water, set about crystals, surround things with the white light of protection. But the reason those practices can be effective is entirely because you have an intention about using them, because of the underlying desire that caused you to do that practice in the first place.

Home is Spirit. It is the I that has been in existence forever, the I that knows limits of neither space nor time.