Then a mason came forth and said, Speak to us of Houses.

I've come across the following passage at an interesting time. My partner and I are moving into a new apartment. We are very excited to have some space to create art, have a shop and be close to friends. I'm excited to make these changes and that we have struck a chord with our priorites. Anyway, I take the following passage into account in regards to our "home" and our expectations. I look forward to opening up more and expanding how I view my "home" and the work I put into. I will have a great nest to land in, but I mustn't use it as a barrier to the world. I know I have to stretch myself in the coming year to experience more...be outside, travel, make amends, learn and renew my sense of self and confidence. We have to keep in mind that material things will not ultimately give us the comfort we're looking for, but that we can find it in our soul and create it for each other.

"Then a mason came forth and said, Speak to us of Houses. And he answered and said: Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere youbuild a house within the city walls. For even as you have home-comings in your twilight, so hasthe wanderer in you, the ever distant and alone. Your house is your larger body. It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; andit is not dreamless. Does not your house dream? and dreaming,leave the city for grove or hill-top? Would that I could gather your houses into my hand, and like asower scatter them in forest and meadow. Would the valleys were your streets, and the green paths youralleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards, andcome with the fragrance of the earth in your garments. But these things are not yet to be. In their fear your forefathers gathered you too near together. Andthat fear shall last a little longer. A little longer shall your city wallsseperate your hearths from your fields. And tell me, people of Orphalese, what have you in these houses?And what is it you guard with fastened doors? Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power? Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span thesummits of the mind? Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned ofwood and stone to the holy mountain? Tell me, have you these in your houses? Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthything that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, andthen a master? Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makespuppets of your larger desires. Though its hands are silken, its heart is of iron. It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeer at thedignity of the flesh. It makes mock of your sound senses, and lays them in thistledownlike fragile vessels. Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and thenwalks grinning in the funeral. But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not betrapped nor tamed. Your house shall not be an anchor but a mast. It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelidthat guards the eye. You shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors, norbend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear tobreathe lest walls should crack and fall down. You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living. And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall nothold your secret nor shelter your longing. For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky,whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songsand the silences of night."- from The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

I'm not religious, but I really liked the sentiment and more or less warning of this passage. This week I have been reading a couple of great books...Pacific Lady, by Sharon Site Adams (first woman to sail solo across the Pacific Ocean) and A Time of Gifts, by Patrick Leigh Fermor.