Sanctuary

Sanctuary: A consecrated place where sacred objects are kept; Refuge: a shelter from danger or hardship.

The sun was setting yesterday evening when I turned onto the small, gravel lane to my house. This made the forest an erie dark place (that bigfoot thing, you know...). There was a cold, damp chill in the air. I'd been listening to the news on the radio and wondering how the world could go on much longer as it is. It wasn't the colder temperatures that were giving me chills when I got out of the car.

I was glad to be home. The lights of the living room shining through the window, autumnal decorations on the porch, and the promise of what was behind the front door, all made me think of one word...sanctuary.

I couldn't wait to get inside where the walls kept the cold and darkness outside where they belonged. The book I'm currently reading was laying on the coffeetable where I had left it a couple hours earlier, my Bible beside it from my morning quiet time. The cats were curled up in two different chairs, each looking up momentarily to acknowledge my arrival (and then resuming their day long cat naps). I could hear my husband in another part of the house.

I hung my coat in the closet and then walked to the kitchen where I placed my watch, cell phone, keys and driving glasses in their usual place (a vintage pie plate), before starting water to boil in the whistling tea kettle on the stove. A little later, I was once again curled up on the sofa with my tea and my book.

My sanctuary is by no means perfect. There are cranky humans who live here (including me), cats who choose to throw up hairballs on the carpeting just a foot away from linoleum, chores that must be done that we've been putting off (like getting under the house and into the crawl space to put in a new water filter for the pump...the kind of things we didn't think of in the city), dishes to be finished with the lack of water pressure...imperfections.

Yet, there is no other place on earth I'd rather be when the weather turns cold and the outside world seems less safe every day. We all need a sanctuary, whether it is an entire house or just one room. I remember as a teenager, when my widowed mother made an "unfortunate" marriage, my only sanctuary was the book in front of my face and my dog curled up at my side. When we lived in the townhouse before moving here, I made a sanctuary of my bedroom with favorite books, artwork, lace curtains and a small TV (I normally don't allow TV in the bedrooms) where I could get away from the noise of unpleasant neighbors and heavy traffic just outside my window.

My kitchens in various houses have all been sanctuaries in one way or another, tying a favorite apron around my waist, pulling out my recipe card files and finding the familiar typed recipe cards my mother-in-law had sent from time to time, or cards where I had copied my own mother's recipes. My familiar pots and pans, knives and other utensils, my favorite red measuring cups and spoons, my wonderful red Kitchen Aid mixer...all coming together to make delicious foods for the family...comfort foods...many from generations before us.

While I have been decluttering my house (and doing major surgery on my bookshelves, giving a couple boxes to the library), I've been thinking of further ways to make my house more of a sanctuary. Decluttering is definitely the first step. We're not tripping over books, anymore. (Extra books I want to keep are being placed in boxes and stored until I find the right shelving.) I had stacks of magazines I want to look through for recipes and decorating articles (all free from the library), they now have a home inside an antique trunk...tuckied away for a Winter project. I'm thinking of a new needlework project to work on this Winter, as well as a couple of projects to organize pictures and craft supplies a little better. All coming together to make our home a more pleasing place to live.

I love the quote I found above when I Googled definitions for sanctuary. Sacred objects are kept in a sanctuary...precious items. I think of wildlife sanctuaries where endangered species are kept or garden sanctuaries where heirloom seeds are planted. A real sanctuary has an artist behind it, someone who will think about it, make plans for it, design the areas needed for the inhabitants, make it pretty, make it safe. I think the next time I have to put down my job description on a form, I will put down Keeper of a Sanctuary. Sounds good to me...