Laundry Line Divine

When you invite the Divine, your life becomes an altar.

Moments this week:

1. Dragonfly dipping in to the river for a drink right in front of me, yesterday.
2. Skirts of dragonflies all over our trip to Florida.
3. Stepping in to the river with Catherine, both of us sinking in to the clear clean cold river water.
4. Standing in the hallway and being enveloped by my son and his long strong arms, two hearts together.
5. Looking at my husband and knowing in our 20 years, the more we surrender and party with the Present, the more Love, Joy and Ease washes in to our life.
6. My girl’s shoulders going down after a decision was made by stating her truth and letting go of the results.
7. Swimming with Lydi and Jill in the deep blue sea.
8. Hearing from my BHK just when my dreams were brimming with her presence.
9. Calls from BJB to my husband, the 4 of us calling to her with our hearts.
10. Jazz on the radio under the hand of Larry, the rain has ceased, the birds celebrate and all things are just as they are- simple, quiet and rhythm filled.

The fun of these Playdates is the variety of wonderments you send me.
First in the mailbox were Marilyn’s photos of altars around her home and garden. They are such a sweet reflection of her laughter and joy in living.

Another moment to pause and smile in Marilyn's home.

Next I heard from my friend Mary McGinn, also known as Kitty Cavalier. Here is her altar.

Mrs. Mary celebrates her creation!

Do you notice how we each choose to celebrate and honor the elements we want to attract in to our life- a conversation with the Sacred, healing for all- including our plants, fulfilling our desires and making room for inspiration from the Infinite. Some of my Facebook friends spoke about standing under trees or out in nature. Melanie wrote about the ‘grotto’ she and her partner have created as a place to reflect and pray.

All these altars are invitations.

Bonnie’s came next with an altar in her home, at the foot of her magnificent collage kitchen and the other, a view from her family home up North where they go to just be.
Isn’t that what an altar calls you to?

Just Be Here?

In Bonnie's kitchen studio,many things are made including art and dinner. The garden comes in to visit!

Lastly, came Kathy Drue, my wonderful blogging Sister in L’Anse, Michigan. She is posting about simplicity this month. This is where she starts:

Here are Kathy’s words:

It is actually an empty table. It sits in our half-finished basement (a walk-out basement complete with couches and chairs and a bedroom and food room and laundry room and storage room). I like to keep the table empty these days to remind me to honor the emptiness, the silence, as well as the fullness. It used to hold one wooden burled bowl for years, which also seemed to hold the energy of openness holding emptiness.

I can’t quite describe how this empty table makes me feel joyful and alive.

I also put “things” on the table from time to time. Laundry baskets. Empty mason jars headed to the food room. Bits and bobs of life. So whenever I empty off the table–and it’s empty again–there is an inner smile. The emptiness isn’t static. It isn’t really even empty. It’s full.

so that is my altar.

This morning’s Daily Rumi caps it all for me:

Value

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,
or your own genuine solitude?
Freedom, or power over an entire nation?

A little while alone in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could be given you.

Tell me about your Altars.
All my love, S

This altar is surrounded in grapevines and olive branches.

Blackberry picking is dangerous.
I scratched my legs today diving in to a haven for the fattest, finest dangling black treasures. I agree with my friend Pearl that dropping one from your already too full fist is like loosing a jewel. That is why we eat so many while picking. Those jewels are never lost. Those interior spots are like sacred holy places to me, cloistered from the hubbub of life on the edge of the berry patch, those inside places call me further in to the bracken.

It is a hot night, not feeling like stirring the jam pot til morning.
Maybe I will freeze this latest batch of berries.

Do you have altars around your house? Nature tables? Shrines?
This stands for a call for entries of photographs or scanned images sent to me of the altars you have around your home or your outdoor space…I am thinking of the little bowl I have for the fairies by my tomato patch, set under a steel Kokopelli sculpture, all in view of the kitchen sink.

Kitchen counter altars. Desk altars. Where you go to pray. Where you stop for sustenance. Some locale in your home that holds a sense of reverence and desire through the objects you place there. These places call us to pause, to hold our desires or prayers or loved ones in our most loving awareness. All this time my Mom has been in the nursing home, I keep pulling out her letters or photos or things she gave me to set on one of my altars, just to keep me in mind of her wholeness. She may be diminishing to Alzheimer’s but my memory of her is alive with detail and joy. My friends who ascribe to the art of Feng Shui have altars all over their homes. My Catholic friends have shrines in their yards with the Blessed Virgin in pretty gardens, sometimes in the bath tub.

I consider the bath tub a sacred spot in my home.

I invite you to share with us here on the Laundry Line a view of your altar or sacred space. Describe it in words or images. I will create a post here on the Line by next Thursday August 5.
Submissions may be sent to laundrylinedivine@gmail.com by Wednesday August 4.

“As I go down to the river to pray…”

All my love, Suzi