I’ve been noticing some interesting post-holiday behavior. My sense of it is there’s a discontentment in the air. For example I was at my favorite restaurant Isabella Café here in Tinley Park last Saturday evening. Two out of three parties asked for a different table after they were seated. One party asked for a third table and considered asking for a fourth, but sensibilities prevailed and they settled in. I assure you these figures are accurate because I was filling in for my good friend Sue and I was doing the seating and re-seating. From my view there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the tables. Yet here it was – a vague yet palpable sense of things being not quite right.
I noticed it at Macy’s, too. I received fabulous purple crocs from my niece Julie and her family (thank you!) and exchanged them for a larger size. While waiting my turn I could hear several other exchanges – not because things didn’t fit or were the wrong color. I repeatedly heard, “It’s just not right.” And while we’ve all received something sometime that wasn’t quite right for us, this seemed to be an epidemic. Let’s face it one of the great benefits of the economic downturn is that we’re all much more careful with our money. As a result holiday gifts were chosen with great care. And to have so many be “just not right” tells me that something deeper is going on. We have an itch that didn’t get scratched even with all of the richness of the winter holidays.
Then I was reorganizing my desk and came upon this: “All things have a home: the bird has a nest, the fox has a hole, the bee has a hive. A soul without prayer is a soul without a home. . . . Continuity, permanence, intimacy, authenticity, earnestness are its attributes. For the soul, home is where prayer is. . . ” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
At this point it occurred to me that like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, we may well be looking for our home and not yet having found it we’re unsettled, discontent. And thanks to Rabbi Heschel, it may be that the home we’re searching for is one that is satisfying to the soul. I believe we’ve found “home” for ourselves physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Now it’s time to get about the business of doing the same for our souls. And like any individual journey, each one is unique and so I cannot offer a final resolution to this. I am, however, suggesting that we begin the inquiry into this facet of ourselves called soul.
So at the start of this new year/new decade let’s begin this new quest. And please let me hear from you on how this is going. All together now, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”
in Love and Service,
Lorena
Lorena's Blog 
January 5, 2010 at 9:18 pm |
There’s no place like home, hit home. I have been in the company of one (husband) who when dining out with a baby (diaper bag, etc., toddler & his mother. We were chosing a table while he was waiting for the food. First I sat at a table, when he came back, he wanted a booth, I moved over to the next booth, well… we were near the smoking section,
I then moved to the next section, non-smoking, a booth…well…we were next to the drafty door. People were staring. I said just sit. I can tell you that it is an unsettled soul who is never satisfied & it is also a very difficult journey finding peace in your own soul when your life is connected by such a person. The hurdles are significant. Here’s to a New Year with others finding a home for their souls so we can also find ours.
Jan
January 5, 2010 at 10:03 pm |
There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.
Got it! What an exquisite expose on the poignant issue of the heart and soul.
May 2010 and the coming decade bring solace to our souls…for what are our options anyway? Pray.
January 5, 2010 at 10:58 pm |
I too have noticed a change in the past week or 2. There is a heaviness that is manifested as sadness in many of my friends. Some who have lived alone for years are suddenly feeling a deep sense of loneliness, Myself included. I chalked it up to a funk. But when I began to call friends to wish them well and chat a bit I realized they to were heavy with loneliness. They did not seem to have a sense of direction though they had many things to do. It is a strange time. I think I will plan more carefully and move at just the right speed. When all else fails look into the depth of the night sky and take a nice deep slow breath and know all is OK
January 5, 2010 at 11:17 pm |
What wonderful insight! I have felt it with each of my encounters in my business as well. I am filled with excitement and hope for this coming year and decade….maybe more so than in years past….and yet I also feel something “not quite right”. As I read this I got it!!! My soul needs to know…”Honey, I’m home” and that happens when I can have that quiet time mid day. Today it came with being at home with Graham (who has a sore throat today) in between clients, and having a ham salad sandwich in bed listening to him talk, work on school work and just hanging out.
thanks for the reminder…
January 6, 2010 at 2:04 am |
I like it! This theme is even showing up in my dream work these days. Your entry also reminds me of a phenomenon that used to occur with me often when I first started paying attention to guidance. More than 50% of the time when I asked my guidance, “Should I go here or there?” my inner voice would say “Go home!” This happened so often that I was starting to get annoyed, for it seemed that Spirit didn’t want me engaging in any social plans. Then I shared this experience with a trusted friend who suggested I was taking the phrase “Go home” too literally. She said, maybe it means go home to source, go home to soul, go home to you. That thought put an entirely different spin on things, and nowadays when I get that same message I try to quite my mind so I can discern to which home guidance is referring. Sometimes I think it literally does mean “get yourself to your apartment” but more often than not I feel it is a gentle reminder just wanting me to slow down and get in touch with my inner world, my true home. Thanks Lorena for reminding me of this!
January 6, 2010 at 10:13 pm |
The discontentment can lead to many sick things in my head. I have to stay in the moment and know that all is well. I so enjoyed reading this, thanks so much for your wonderful stories of reality. I am “home” more often these days in prayer and meditation, I had put that to the wayside and did not even realize it. Prayer is #1 today and hopefully I will keep it that way….. Thanks for the reminder!