Home by Charyn Gant

 

Photo by Sarah McMurray

These four simple letters can convey so many emotions. Home, seen in the most ideal light, is the center and the heart of our life. It represents OUR space, OUR sanctuary, the place we (hopefully) feel safe and secure. It is where we entertain, birth and raise families, comfort each other, tend to illness, and dream the future into now. Home is our connection to past, present and future.

However, when we lose the home we knew, there can be a great hole in our heart and spirit. Seven years ago and 2 years before my mom passed away from complications of Alzheimer’s, my sisters and I had to sell the house we had called home for 22 years. When mom was diagnosed, I didn’t realize at the time that it was the beginning of the end since I was the one still there with her, not wanting to leave her alone. Only when I had to move out did the reality hit me in a horribly hard way: the home I had known and the woman who had anchored it was no longer available to me. As with many others who experience this loss in varying ways, the outcome is the same: You can never again go home.

The place we called home, the aura, the scents, the objects, the people, holds a plethora of memories and experiences. Yet there comes the time when we must search, find and make our own homes. Where we consciously create sacred space for our selves and the life we envision in that place; where home becomes the very foundation to gather in celebration, in heartfelt community.

You are the center of your world and when you do not have a home to claim as your own, a deep sadness or depression may exist. Maybe you have a place where you reside but you don’t call it home. Maybe you have a new home but have not yet released the old one. Maybe you live alone and don’t always feel safe.

There is a Goddess I invite you to meet to help you seek and ensure that the place you eventually call home attracts good times, good love, good food and a good life. She came to me to introduce her so here she is!

Photo by Sarah McMurray

Hestia is the Greek Goddess of Home & Hearth. A quiet feminine figure, she tended to stay out of the drama of all the other Greek gods/goddesses, which is why we generally don’t hear about her so much. So if you’re the type of woman who wants a drama-free home, and I hope this goes for all of you, this is definitely the Goddess for you!

By invoking Hestia, she can help you find a home or to set the energy in place for one as it is she who presides over all domestics. She is the essence of community, family, food, cooking, feasts and fire of the hearth. She is a lovely protective Mother Goddess, which is especially helpful if you are a single woman living alone or in a questionable area of safety.

Hestia is a Goddess who chooses honors her heart and happiness by only doing those things that make her happy, a quality that could stand to be embodied deeply by every woman on the planet. If we all did this, we would probably have world peace by the end of the week! Hestia is the embodiment of peace, groundedness and centeredness. All of these qualities will anchor your home in light so that when you walk in the door at the end of the day, you gratefully leave the outside world and its dramas behind!

Ultimately, you are the creatrix and the gatekeeper of the aura in your home, including the energy and people you allow inside!

You have the freedom and right to limit or refuse entry to those whom you deem negative or unsupportive; those people can leave a residue behind that may compromise the loving energy of your home, including family and friends.

Choose every day, to fill your home with love, gratitude, joy and honesty and only those qualities and those who embody them, will enter.

Charyn Gant is the founder of the blog/site When We Listen to Trees: a platform to share information, stories and tolls of how we can improve our quality of life, especially our emotional health as it relates to our physical health. Charyn has been in the alternative healing arena for more than a decade. You can also find her on Pinterest and LinkedIn.