Wherever you live, whether it’s in the woods or in town or in a city, there is probably an in-between place that you cross to enter your “home space”. How do we know when we’ve crossed this line? for some, the comfortable boundary around the house or apartment might include a half a mile of space. Others might not feel at home until they close the door behind them.
For today’s activity, I want you to take your kids outside of the house and use your body radar* to walk slowly —you can even tiptoe— and pay attention to how your body feels as you go. Tune into your senses. Widen your vision and open your noses and keep your ears perked. Take deep breaths and feel the freshness of the air.
Pay attention to the feeling of being in your “place”. For many of us, it may feel comforting and safe, especially in these days of staying home to keep us all healthy. I want you to keep noticing how your body feels as you get further away from your front door, and try your best to notice when you reach the point where you’ve crossed the threshold into “away from home”.
This may be a different spot for each of you- for your 7 year old, it may be right at the door to your home, For your 4 year old, it may be many steps down the driveway. For you, it may be where the legal property line ends. That’s your true front door. When you get there, Have a seat or squat down, and take a look around.
If the exact spot you’ve picked isn’t safe, i.e. int the middle of the road, choose a safe spot nearby. In this spot, your activity for today is to build an altar, a place to mark the transition from home to not-home. A welcome center, a place to say “hello and welcome” to the other beings in your orbit. You can build a place to put offerings, like stones, feathers, leaves, or stick creations (a little food, like an apple, is ok, but not much, because we don’t necessary want to be teaching animals that they should come close to humans to get food). You can add small structures, a candle or vessel to hold water, some colorful string or roving wool, or even a little welcome sign. Think of all the things, creatures and beings who might be passing through your “front door” each day. Wind, rain, slugs, salamanders, foxes, minks, moths, mosquitos, dogs, voices, thoughts, people. You could write a list if you want, or just think of each one in your head.
*What is Body Radar? Some people call it intuition, some call it body knowledge. It’s a way of knowing that isn’t from your mind. It’s as if you are being pulled by an invisible cord below your bellybutton. This body radar may take you in certain directions and away from others; it may tell you to keep walking or urge you to stop. Our job is just to listen, not make judgements about whether our body radar is right or wrong. I often describe body radar to young children as the feeling they might have when they are too far away from their parents to feel safe. They might get a funny feeling, turn around and see their parent in the distance, too far away. Their body radar might be telling them to head back a little closer to their parent!
*A note on Altars: Although Altars may have a religious connotation for some folks, this activity does not have to be religious or spiritual. It’s simply marking a space between home and not-home, and indicating a welcome point between the two. Also, you do not have to have “stuff” from inside for your altar. You can certainly add knickknacks or candles—I often do for mine. But an altar can look any way you want, and can be built out of grass and leaves and twigs and dirt, nothing more. And if you do use things from inside, make sure they aren’t going to be harming the animals or landscape, and that you remember to bring them in eventually so it isn’t just turning into litter.
If you are following along on Instagram, post a pic of your welcome center altars in your stories if you make them and tag me! I want to see!!