My task this next week is to create a gathering place for our family in a warm and sunny climate. For those who love to decorate and beautify like my friend Dana King or Geri Jackson, this creative process stimulates and energizes the soul. For me, it is daunting and overwhelming. For while I recognize beauty and have a pretty good understanding of those environments where I am comfortable, pulling it all together from the store into my house is quite another matter. Considering scale, color, and texture overwhelmingly inhibit my ability to make choices. So despite hours of searching, I remain furniture-less.
And even more concerning to me, and in the grander scheme of things, I recognize that I am creating a gathering place for my family, for possible grandchildren, for my siblings and their children, for my mother and in-laws, for friends. I am trying to create a place where those whom I love and matter most to me will feel the influence of the spirit. Will feel safe and love and inspired and nurtured. Will feel happiness and joy. Will feel they belong.
Bryce Christensen from The Family in America said this:
Home [signifies] not only shelter, but also emotional commitment, security,
and belonging."
President Gordon B. Hinckley said that women are "the guardians of the hearth." And then he pronounced this blessing on women: "May you be strengthened for the challenges of the day. May you be endowed with wisdom beyond your own in dealing with the problems you constantly face. May your prayers and your pleading be
answered..."
And so tomorrow, as I go searching for beds and tables and chairs and sofas and window coverings and shower curtains and dishes and pots and pictures and linen and appliances, I hope that I am truly endowed with wisdom beyond my own. That I am inspired to homemake for now and for eternity.
4 comments:
Good luck with your task. We truly are kindred spirits--I am very much the same way. I want a new couch, but I am just paralyzed by the thought of going and buying one.
I love the quote by President Hinckley.
I hope it is a productive and fulfilling day for you and that the results will be all you desire.
Are you in Arizona now or going there today? It would be fun to do that with you but I'm afraid Arizona is not the place for me. Too much desert, heat and dry air. BUT spending time with you - - - making a house into a home would over shadow all of that. Enjoy and send pictures.
I'm sure the desire of your heart will carry over in to all the planning and arranging and beautifying of this haven that you are creating for those you love. It will show. It will be felt. When can I come? ;-)
Boonie, Good luck - such a big job and I have little to offer for suggestions to make it easier - P and B did the first one - I think all I bought were the placements and the napkins for that house. And the second one I didn't start on until after the beds were bought - which seems to be a good starting point.
Post a Comment