House Blessing

I remember the first time I entered my new home after the closing date.  An acquaintance had suggested that I carry something really special inside that very first time. I think the idea was to acknowledge the special place home holds.  By bringing something dear to you inside the very first time you are expressing a conscious intention for your life in your home.  I thought long and hard about what that item would be.  Maybe I would bring a candle to signify that light and warmth would always be present in my new home.  Perhaps a beautiful shell would express my connection to nature. Or I could bring in a bouquet of colourful flowers to encourage beauty in my new home.

As I pondered my decision of what to bring in it really began to sink in what a big deal it was to have recently separated and now to be purchasing a home on my own. That’s when I knew what I would bring.

When I took the keys out of my pocket and turned them in the lock for the very first time, I brought something that was absolutely precious inside…I brought me!

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I decided to have a House Blessing before I moved my furniture in my new home. I asked several of my closest friends to join me in the blessing.  We gathered on a beautiful summer afternoon in a circle on the floor in my empty living room.  I had placed a white sheet and some white candles and a clear glass bowl with water in the center.  I spoke about my hopes for my life in my new home and then we sang, made noise, burned sage and celebrated in each and every corner of the house.

It was summer and I admit that although I wanted my friends to help me shift the energy from the previous owners to mine, I was worried what my neighbours would think about all the noise we were making.  Fortunately no one came knocking on the door and we were able to carry on uninhibited.

After our celebration I came out front to say goodbye to my friends and the young boy next door whom I hadn’t met yet said, “What was all that racket coming from your house?”  I gulped preparing myself for the first of many potential questions about my activities.  When I told him that I’d asked my friends over to bless my new home with drumming and singing, he said, “You should have asked me, I could have brought my guitar!”

Later I realized that my neighbourhood was filled with noise at all hours of the day and night.  Whether it was the young woman on the corner beautifully singing her Italian arias, the unknown man on the other side of the block practicing his saxaphone, the girlband across the street that was preparing for their debut or the happy drunks finding their way home from the bars on a Saturday night.  It was a relief to have moved into a neighbourhood where anything goes. And I wondered, with this newfound freedom, who I was about to become. I was grateful that my home, newly blessed would be supporting me to find out.

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I’m curious who you are about to become and what you are doing to support that change?