Thursday, February 21, 2008

Sanctuary

"Sanctuary. Sanctuary." It's probably my favorite line in "Runaway Bride."

But I just read a reminder about the importance of creating a sanctuary as one creates one's home. When I was a teen, despite the physical and emotional chaos present, my house was the place with the open-door policy. Any of my friends could show up and hang out (as long as it wasn't a boy with whom I was "kissing friends").

That's what I want our home to be (minus the physical and emotional chaos). I wonder how that will work when we're immersed in another culture. Will Cami bring her friends home with her from school? When Graham's ten will we be surrounded by a crowd? And when the friends grow up, will they come to me & Jason to talk about the stuff that they just don't feel they can share with their own parents?

Of course, we have no idea how long we will stay in England. My parents have been in the same house for almost 32 years. Forever, by American standards, mere moments by European. But I suppose that constancy is part of what makes a place one's sanctuary. For my parents, it was a consistent location -- for me, I hope it's a feeling of love, fun, and joyous happiness.

2 comments:

Tricia said...

I needed this. Tonight my house was not a sanctuary. Sigh. I'll do better tomorrow.

Kristin said...

This was a beautiful post, Starr. In the last Worldwide training on the family, (did you catch it?) I loved when Sis Beck said that instead of measuring a successful day based on how much we ticked off on our to-do list, we should feel we were successful if we were able to create a climate in our homes where homemaking (in its truest sense) and nurturing could happen, where the most important things had an opportunity to grow.