Life

The Home

You take care of a house with a broom, and with words too. These walks and small gestures are for cleaning, blessing and welcoming, and each one ends with a chore done.

Cleaning the house: making room

To leave the house ready for rest and for kindness.

You need: A card and a pencil
When: After you clean the house.
Time: Ten minutes

First do your usual cleaning, with the products you use on each surface.
Draw a plant on the card: vervain, rue, mugwort, basil or pine. If you have one of them in a pot, carry the plant instead of the card.
Start in the room deepest inside the house.
Walk through every room with the card in your hand, always heading toward the front door.
When you reach the door, open it and say the words.
Leave the card by the entrance and take one thing that is in the way out of the house.

“I leave this place ready for rest and for kindness. I clear out what is in the way and take care of what stays.”

Clapping in the corners

To stir the still air of a house that has been closed up or tense.

When: After an argument, after someone has been sick, after a long trip or when you move into a new home.
Time: Ten minutes

Open the windows and the front door.
Go to the room farthest from the front door.
Stand facing a corner and clap hard three times: once down low, once at waist height and once as high as you can reach.
Listen to the sound. If it sounds dull, keep clapping until it rings clear.
Go through every corner of the house, room by room, and finish at the front door.
Say the words with the door open.
Wash your hands in cold water and close the windows whenever you like.

“What was standing still moves and goes out. Fresh air comes into this house.”

Welcoming prosperity into the home

To welcome into your house what a decent life rests on.

You need: A flower or an electric light
Time: Five minutes

Stand just inside the front door with the flower or the light in your hands.
Walk slowly from the door into the house.
Say the words as you go.
Set the flower or the light in the spot you choose.
Take care of one household chore today that has been waiting.

“I welcome what a decent life rests on: honest work, food, respectful bonds and rest. May I know an opportunity when I see one and take care of it.”

A pot of cinnamon and orange

To fill the house with a warm scent at the start of the month or before company comes.

You need: A small pot of water · The peel of one orange · Two cinnamon sticks · Three whole cloves, if you have them
When: On the first day of the month or before a visit.
Time: Half an hour

Fill the pot halfway with water.
Add the peel, the cinnamon and the cloves.
Set it over low heat, with no lid.
When steam begins to rise, say the words.
Let it simmer for half an hour and add water if it gets low. Open the doors of the rooms so the scent reaches all of them.
Turn off the stove. When the pot is cold, put the peels in the compost and pour the water down the drain.

“May this house smell like a welcome. May there be warmth in it, bread and good company.”

Care: Don't leave the pot alone on the stove, and turn it off before the water runs out.

A walk through the house

To bless each room for what is done in it.

Time: Ten minutes

Start at the front door.
Walk through the house clockwise until you are back at the door. If the layout doesn't allow it, follow whatever order is practical.
In each room say a short blessing: rest in the bedroom, nourishment in the kitchen, focus where you work, kindness in the shared rooms.
Back at the door, say the words.
If the psalms are part of your devotion, read Psalms 91 and 23.
Do it on a single day, or repeat it for three, five, seven or nine days in a row at the same hour.

“May this home take in what cares for it and know how to close the door on what harms it.”

A glass of salt water

To set a sign of cleansing by the door for the week.

You need: A glass · Water · A tablespoon of coarse salt · A saucer
When: At the start of the week or after hard days at home.
Time: Two minutes, and seven days of waiting

Fill the glass three-quarters full of water.
Add the salt and don't stir it.
Set the glass on the saucer behind the front door, where no one will knock it over.
Say the words.
Leave it for seven days without moving it.
On the seventh day, pour it down the drain with the faucet running and wash the glass. Keep the glass for this use only.

“Water and salt, gather up what weighs on this house. Whatever comes in through this door, may it come in clean.”

Care: Put it where children and pets can't reach it: it is not for drinking.

A blessing for the workplace

To open your workplace to work well done and to respect for everyone in it.

When: When you open a business, move into a new office or start the week.
Time: Five minutes

First do your usual cleaning.
Start at the entrance.
Walk through the place at an easy pace, without skipping any part of it.
Say the words as you walk. If the psalms are part of your devotion, read Psalms 91 and 23 as well.
Finish at your desk or beside your tools, and begin with the task that does the most for the people you serve.

“May this place take in work well done and respect for everyone. May abundance go hand in hand with service that gives something of value.”

The table as a ritual

To give thanks for your food and eat with attention.

When: Before you eat.
Time: One minute

Before you eat, look at your plate.
Think of the hands, the living things and the labor that made it possible: the earth, the one who grew it, the one who carried it, the one who cooked it, the one who shares the table.
Say the words.
For the first few bites, notice the taste, the texture and the smell.

“Thank you for this food and for everyone who made it possible for it to reach me. May I receive it with attention. May all people have food, shelter and care.”

Washing off the day

To put the day where it belongs and take back your rest.

When: At night, in the shower or as you wash up.
Time: Two minutes

While you wash up for the night, pause.
Feel the water.
Notice the weight of your feet on the floor.
Name three things that can wait until tomorrow.
Say the words.

“What happened today finds its place. I hand each person back what is theirs to carry, and I take back my rest.”

Saying goodbye to a home and passing it on

To thank a house you are leaving and wish its next people well.

You need: A yellow flower, a piece of brown paper or a picture of the house
When: When you put a house up for sale or get ready to leave it.
Time: Fifteen minutes

Walk through the house room by room.
In each one, recall a moment you want to keep.
Name the need that is moving you on.
Picture the people who may live here, happy in it.
Say the words.
Leave the flower, the paper or the picture where it can be seen.
Take care of one concrete task in the process: sort the paperwork, get the place ready or go over an offer.

“Thank you for all we lived here. I let myself open a new chapter, and I wish for this place to welcome other people and be good to them. May it all go forward clearly and with fair agreements.”

Plants