Seeking Sanctuary

Sanctuary.

A safe place where the lost go when they are despondent and worn from a path that has caused them strain and sorrow.

A haven for the weary, the confused, aching ones who yearn for a place of quiet rejuvenating peace.

A place of solace for those in times of trouble.

The word Sanctuary has been coming up for me all over the place lately, which is no huge surprise as the Universe is reminding me of the large changes in my life coming. Soon I will be called upon to redefine what and where I consider home.

Home.

Home is another word that has causes me a great deal of pause for the last several months.

A sanctuary in itself (or at least it should be) a safe place of loving acceptance, calm and serenity.

I've always thought of home as a sanctuary, a cocoon of warmth surrounding us that nourishes and soothes in dark times. A place that is our roots and solid footing when we need; the place we go to ground, recharge and get ready for the next adventure.

In the ever shifting tides, I have lost my certainty in regards to what makes a home let alone where in this world to find some much needed sanctuary.

Seeking Sanctuary.

We run towards sanctuary when we are in some sort of panic, surrounded by chaos and calamity.

We chase it down when we are lost, aching and split open; when everything is on fire.

I wonder sometimes why we never look for it when we are calm? Maybe the path isn't revealed to us then, needing to have the waters rise around us in order to reveal the road.

Maybe sanctuary is only found within. Maybe the same was true of home.

Maybe a sanctuary was some external place, found in the desert or on the horizon beckoning.

Maybe a home was a place that broke away and had to crumble before you sought sanctuary.

Maybe the arms of sanctuary helped you find the real home you were destined for.

In my relentless searching for home, for this sanctuary that I could feel calling me, I found myself dropping into a place of sadness.

How do we know the path to Sanctuary? 

What if there were no open harbors that would receive me? A place of healing in my time of need?

Worse yet, what if there was no all-embracing home that I had been sensing all along but never seeing?

What if there was no place of belonging?

What if this pull I feel is listening to my intuition incorrectly?

How can we choose the right road forward during times of crisis?

Is it possible to make the right choice when the world around you is crumbling and burning to the ground?

What if my compass was broken? What if I followed the wrong beacon towards unfamiliar shores?

What if I crashed on the rocks?

Finding Sanctuary, as does a many great other things in this life, requires faith.

You have to trust the winding path stretched out in front of you on the dusty road.

Sometimes you can't see where it is going but you know there is something better out there.

It's not that you can't seek sanctuary or home in times of calm, but the road crumbling behind you makes you move a lot more quickly. Sometimes fire is needed to push us along and speed up the transformation.

Your compass is never broken.

You go where you need in order to learn the things you have to or to gain what you need to gain for the path ahead.

There is no such thing as following the wrong beacon, the light is calling you for a reason.

And if you break open upon the stones and cliffs of an unfamiliar shore, break open completely and let all of it in to transform you.

Because worse than seeking a sanctuary and never finding it is never setting on the seas to look in the first place.

I believe there is a home out there for us all, a place of unmistakable belonging that can also be our sanctuary.

Maybe it's a cabin in the woods, maybe it's another human being, maybe it's even a project, a book or even a song. Maybe it's found in the nature surrounding us or maybe it's feeling not so alone or misunderstood in a big city or with some of your tribe.

Home, like sanctuary, I think means something different to each of us.

Sometimes we happen upon it by seeming accident, sometimes it is shown to us and sometimes I think we have to create it.

But I believe, as I trust the unfolding path, that it is out there waiting in the unseen, the safe haven that calls to my heart and soul.

I just have to keep the faith and keep on moving forward.

"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king." ~JRR Tolkien