Doing the Essential Work in Our Homes and in Our Hearts

Though life does seem determined to be a beautiful, and entrancing distraction...our participation in this dance of distraction also makes more real, and more necessary, our ability to return to essential ground, to an essential person or an essential work.

–David Whyte

This week marks one year that I’ve been in my new home, and twelve months ago I certainly never imagined that I’d be celebrating this anniversary in the midst of a global pandemic. As we move into our second month of sheltering-in-place, I’ve been forced to get to know my home in a deeper, somewhat unrelenting way. 

One of the first things I discovered was that I had some uninvited guests. I was participating in a Zoom call with other healers when I was distracted by the sight of a raccoon crawling from the chimney above my garage. The garage is attached to the house and I suspected that a mother raccoon had made a nest in the attic. Sure enough—my ceiling began to sag and buckle and an unmistakable smell of urine pervaded the room. 

I called several places trying to find out how to get a raccoon family removed, but no one is open during the quarantine. When I finally found a service, they said they were going to put the raccoons down. 

I said no and kept searching.

At last I found a wildlife group that to come remove the mother and her four babies, leaving me to face the damage they left behind. 

The experience left me feeling overwhelmed and powerless. I alternated between feeling scammed by the home’s previous owner and down on myself for not seeing some of the home’s hidden issues. 

It’s bad enough to be stuck at home, I thought. Why do I have to be confronted with more and more problems? 

As I “listened” to my house, I saw that I was playing the part of victim. 

Whenever I start to ask “why me?” I know I need to breathe and reclaim my power. As poet David Whyte puts it, I have to return to essential ground. 

When I did that, it occurred to me: what if my home needed a healing too? 

Homes have energies, just like people, and they have blockages too. So I arranged a home healing and did my breathwork. I immediately felt myself shift into more acceptance. It was a wonderful reminder of how important this work is and how it brings me back into harmony. When I return to my breath, I move more quickly to peace.

I now believe that, behind their masks, my pesky, uninvited guests were a blessing in disguise. They allowed me to get my ego out of the way and surrender to what was happening. They were certainly a destructive force of nature, just like the virus we are all facing. 

But that’s what this time is about—coming back to ourselves and embracing the situation even when it’s uncomfortable. As we face the unknown, we have no choice but to be still and love ourselves through this. 

This is our essential work. 

If you would like to be supported in this time of change, I am offering individual long-distance WhaleBreathing sessions. These 90-minute sessions are normally priced at $185 but I’ll be doing them on a donation-only basis for a limited time. Schedule your appointment by May 18th to receive this offer. Please contact me to schedule a session and pay what you can.