As I was cruising the Internet in December, I came across a post about sacred spaces. Not your usual sacred spaces, but little places we use to ground ourselves, discover beauty and take a deep breath. Shockingly, this one was in a kitchen–not the most Zen place in our house.
Later, when I went into our kitchen, I realized I had already created such a space for myself. When you spend as much time in the kitchen as I do (making freakin’ everything from scratch to avoid plastic and chemicals takes FOREVER) you want it to be a nice space. You want a little nature in there.
Our kitchen is pretty ugly, it’s not terrible, just not homey or pretty or earthy. So, having a few of my favorite things nearby really does make me happy.
If you want to play a little game, see if you can find:
*Hanging glass terrariums filled with pebbles, shells, and air plants. I saw these at a friend’s house and fell in love. Fortunately, they are easy to get online.
*Small plate with botanical illustrations. I bought a set of four of these from our local tea shop. I loved visiting the owner (she since sold the shop) when the boys were babies. I was desperate for adults to talk to and she was great. Plus, she kept me stocked up with Earl Gray. I used a gift certificate H gave me for mother’s day to get the plates.
*Rose hips from a hike to Pine Creek this fall
*African violets from a friend who was moving. I wish they were in ceramic, rather than plastic pots, but I haven’t found any at the thrift store, yet.
*A big ol’ glass jar full of lichen! Most of it is gathered on local hikes, but I did smuggle a bit of reindeer lichen back from the tundra. Check my Facebook page for a photo of me resting on said tundra. You can’t miss the tall, dried, parasitic flower stalk, also from Pine Creek. The boys keep trying to get me to donate it to their nature collections. No way.
*Rocks. Most from around here, but the heart shaped rock is from last year’s trip to Sedona with Jen.
Everyone of those things is special to me.
Do you have tiny sacred space? What does your kitchen window sill look like? Why am I asking so many questions?
Man, I hear you about the taking freakin’ forever! I think I spend more time in the kitchen of our house (not that it is a separate room or anything) than any other part.
I have little cairns in my kitchen windowsill. One of smooth river rocks from when we visited the source of our watershed and the river out front, one of dried chestnuts from the giant tree The Barracuda and his homeschool friends play in, and one of pumice from our mountain. I don’t exactly know why it is a window, since all it looks out on is the shed and the hillside the shed is built into, so no growing things. Your terrariums are really cool!
Our bathroom has a large piece of driftwood from our river and it is filled with rocks from all of our backpacking trips. Each time we go out we bring a different type of rock home. Obsidian, Jasper, Jade, turquoise, pumice, petrified wood, this amazing red one I haven’t been able to identify, a really cool purple one I’m clueless about too. The all sit in there to remind us of where we have been and the struggles we walked through.
@Brynn- I want to come visit your bathroom! Actually, your whole set up sounds pretty good, especially the outdoors part.