Finding your own 'Heaven' May 1, 2015

Have you ever read Mitch Albom’s ‘The Five People you Meet in Heaven’?  Its one of my favourite books…well, maybe I should really say most of his books are ‘one of my’ favourites!  But that one I love, mostly because in it Mitch proposes that heaven will be whatever we really, really want it to be, based on our life experience, our favourite moments and places, and what our perfect place would be.  What a wonderful idea!

What is most incredible about is is how blessed I am that I am living in my heaven as I write. I’ve always loved and cherished this little nook in the world, but every year I think I cherish it more.  We’ve created a little campground, up on the hill, in back of the main yard.  It’s got the most beautiful sunsets over the Assiniboine River Valley.  It’s so quiet, you could literally hear a pin drop, except when the generator is running to charge up the batteries in the 5th wheel.  When it’s off, there isn’t a sound.  Not the hum of a furnace, or traffic, or anything.  What there is are birds, insects, the gentle breeze and occasionally the howl of coyotes in the distance.  

We put our camper up here early in the year, and take advantage of as many moments as we can.  I can tether my cell to get a little wifi reception, to work on things that I’m passionate about pursuing.  The cell phone might ring, but most times not.  And for the most part it is absolute, blissful peace and tranquility.  It feeds my soul and nourishes my spirit like nothing else seems to be able to do.  Time at the ocean comes close, but that always comes at a cost…the price of energy expended to share that space with the hundreds of other people who have chosen that as their get away of choice.  This is different.  This is ours, and the only other people that might be here in this little niche are those we’ve invited to embrace this with us.  

I like the camper, because that is ‘my space’.  Cecil prefers the quiet and the rustic life he can enjoy in his cabin, just feet away from where our camper is sitting.  On the deck of the cabin, we’ve got the greatest swing that was given to us by friends who were moving and decided not to take it with them.  We can sit and swing and just stare out into the beauty of the valley for hours, without the need for a word to be spoken.  Just drinking in the beauty and the quiet that is this place.  

We all need that ‘place’ that is ours to go to.  To gather our spirits, reboot and reenergize our souls and ground ourselves for all that the world throws at us.  I know how lucky I am to have this, and hope that you have a place of your own that does that for you.  It doesn’t have to be large, or remote or even space that is your own, if it’s somewhere that allows you to breathe more deeply and connect more solidly with the source of what keeps you going day after day.  If you don’t have that space for you….you need to find one.  Honor yourself by making finding that space that is yours a priority, not something that you’ll do one day.  Something you will do now, before the world pulls any more from you that you don’t have a chance to replenish. 

Some people are pulled to nature, as I am.  Others find that in a sacred building, a sanctuary, a coffee house that affords them a corner to themselves, or a museum.  It can be on a bench along a small strip of greenspace, or a walkway along the water’s edge.  It can be whatever your idea of Heaven might be, even if it’s a sacred space you’ve created in your own home that is yours to go to and be undisturbed for the time needed to replenish yourself.  The where is as individual as each of us are, but the need to find this and gift it to ourselves is universal.  Have you found your little peace of ‘heaven’ here on earth that nourishes you?  If not, what are you waiting for….because you know it’s waiting for you.