I really love this recent line from Gwendolyn Ren:
And I think this altar on the east wall by the window is really just a reminder to tend the altar in my heart. To sweep it, breathe fresh air into it, hold within it meaning and mystery.
Gwendolyn is a person I met recently, she a participant at an event I co-hosted. I loved her very still and present ways of being.
Gwendolyn is talking about altars, like the one “tucked into the nook in my office.” She talks about items that come an go on her altars. She talks about listening for what needs to be there.
Oh, I have learned that such tending matters to me. The candle that I altar, and that I light from time to time, or when I know of someone dear to me that is in need. The stones or pieces of wood collected from geographies that are important to me. The photo of my grandparents. A few hand-written notes from and for people that I feel woven with.
And then, Gwendolyn’s insight hits the spot. I so love the associative superpower to be able to connect what is the outer world to a deeply inner.
And I think this altar on the east wall by the window is really just a reminder to tend the altar in my heart. To sweep it, breathe fresh air into it, hold within it meaning and mystery.
Here is to the heart tending, the altar tending, the heart altaring, the heart altering that any of us are up to, in the quiet and soloed ways, and in the shared and communal ways.