Nesting and Settling In

I’ve been in Guatemala for about two weeks now.

It’s been a whirlwind kind of two weeks filled with lots of stuff about the house.  This is the first time I’ve ever built a house, and while I expected that there would be a lot of decisions that would need to be made, I hadn’t expected there to be quite so many! I’ve made more trips to different types of hardware and home construction supply stores than I care to count.

One of my good friends from Guatemala oversaw the construction, and he did an excellent job.  The house is everything that I would want for a spiritual sanctuary.  Even though I will be splitting my time between San Francisco and Guatemala, I decided that I would move all of my belongings down here, since they are things that bring me a lot of joy. And shouldn’t a spiritual sanctuary be filled with things that bring you joy?

The movers arrived last Friday with all of my stuff, and I spent the weekend unpacking everything.  I’m one of those crazy people that has the entire house unpacked, with pictures on the walls within 1-2 days.  Since I tend to move every three years of so, I definitely have a methodology for packing and unpacking.  I can pack up an entire 3-bedroom house in one very long day.  My fastest time for unpacking was 12 hours, but that was with my mom helping. Since everything had been in storage for just twelve days short of a year, I felt like I was reuniting with old friends as I unwrapped each item.  And to finally sleep in my own bed after a year was heavenly.

The builders finished the punch list of items on Thursday, and I’ve had the house to myself now for a couple days.  After all this time on the road, including the many years I worked as a business strategy consultant, I’m finding myself doing something that I never have done before: I am nesting and really feel no desire to leave my nest.  I sit in my oversized comfy chair and just breathe in the peacefulness and tranquility of my sanctuary.  I don’t even feel the need to meditate, since it seems as if my entire existence here is a mindful meditation.

I realize that this is a time of strengthening and connection for me to the energy of the house, the land, and the ancestors who lived on this land before me, and I am opening myself up to whatever gifts each has for me.  It’s almost as if I’m waiting to see what will hatch from this next adventure.  Stay tuned!