Arriving, Re-embracing And Decorating With Love

Here comes the Guest Post from Kim Ridenour Raikes, poet-author, professor, pastor, painter and so much more. The theme is "abandonment/isolation/renewal/rebirth/arrival" - think of that word string as a circle and start anywhere. Here we start with arrival as Kim arrives to visit her beloved house that she sadly had to part from a few months ago. 

As a symbol of a journey, arrival, renewed energies, here are Vishnu's feet pictured in the wonderful altar Kim had in her home. May such energies awaken once more in all the abandoned homes within and without us.

This is such a viscerally felt and exquisitely written elegy to a house - it deserves to stand alone, unembellished  by my thoughts or emotions.

Over to Kim:

"Isolation" - an artwork by Debojyoti Das

                                      

I saw this just a couple of days after visiting our old house, which we visited a few days ago. We knew from our former neighbors that the new owners had stripped it of many things, like our gardens and children’s swings, which we had placed there over the years, and that they would be living in the sunny south half the year, starting last month. And they warned us that things had changed.

But to see our house looking so abandoned and shut down shocked us. We felt the pain and loneliness of our house, our home for 23 years, as if it were a living being. Of course it isn’t, yet surely all our dwellings absorb our spirit, and our house seemed to miss our presence, as we do its place.

The view from the deck of Kim's "abandoned and re-embraced" house in its heyday

So we brought decorations, as for a Christmas tree, to its neighboring trees, with the permission of our former neighbors. We placed wreaths and garlands of bird seeds and nuts to help them through the winter, and so cheer our house as well.

Thirty years ago when my mother died, we of course had to sell her house. It was empty for a year. I mourned to a friend, who happened to be a priest or pastor, that it felt empty each time we passed or tried to care for it to attract a potential new buyer. Our new friend said, “Perhaps her house just had to be quiet for a while."

Quiet, like Vishnu’s sleep, is a time of rebirth and creation. That spring, after my mother’s death, the wildflowers in her lawn burst into bloom like never before. Rebirth has a power of creation and hope that transforms emptiness and loneliness and doubt if we decorate it with our love. In darkness, light the lights!

Sleeping Vishnu in Mahishasuramardini Cave in Mamallapuram

This post should ideally have been hosted on Chakratirtha - Journeys Into Place, Mind, Spirit, being so close to the theme of that space, but it asked to be here. Thank you Kim for not leaving it unwritten.

About The Pictures:

1. How Kim's dear house might have been feeling - stripped, deserted, neglected and bereft of human company during the festive season - this is an artwork by Debojyoti Das that inspired a long conversation and these words from Kim. The image belongs to him, no sharing without permission. Heartfelt thanks Dee. 

2. How Kim's dear house looked at Christmas in her heyday which was not so long ago - this is the energy that Kim hopes she was able to breathe into her as she reassured the lonely house of her abiding love. Our missing defines our love after all - image belongs to her, no sharing without permission.

Don't miss the synchronicity of the blue - it's uncanny isn't it?
And I am excited to tell you, that just after publishing I realized that a myriad stars were decorating the sky above the lone house, showering it with love and these very stars were shining as Christmas decorations on the icy rail of Kim's deck.

Footnote for Kim:
Sometimes there are houses that a personal circumstance forces owners to leave in a hurry. and it agonizes them to do so. I know my own family went through it and I have friends here who did the same. There are also poignant stories that friends told me of the Partition - their ancestors walked out of their fully functional up-and-running houses, a mere bundle of essential possessions in hand. I recall how one family left the lamp burning at the altar. I cried. Neither the abandoned house in the artwork nor your beautiful house (it will always be yours) has a negative vibe. They have stories, they are lonely. Some lonely artist or writer will step inside one day long after your time (maybe when some owner down the line leaves it empty) and listen to the stories it's hiding in its folds. The children's laughter as they swing in your bee and butterfly garden will capture their inner ear and heart. And know your altar still dwells in the heart of your house, the lamp burns as an akhanda deepam and the ancestors definitely visit in September. When this owner sleeps those globes will magically light up to light their way.

PS - do visit all the links. It's well worth your time.