As we linger at home in our semi-quarantined state, turning our focus inward to our surroundings can help up reconnect with this place we find ourselves restricted to. Seeing it with fresh eyes can help us re-imagine our space and make it what we need in these strange, unprecedented times.
One exercise that is relatively simple but potentially very impactful, is the act of creating a threshold blessing for your home. Threshold blessings can be similar to a house blessing. I led this activity as one of our UU church’s small group ministry programs last month. Our theme that month was thresholds – real and figurative. Creating a blessing for your home or a room in your home is a way of embodying your wishes for your guests or family (or both). The act of creating a blessing enriches our own selves as much as those for whom it is intended.
So in order to craft a blessing we need to know 1. What a blessing is, and 2. how you go about writing one. I’ve written a few over the years, but not with any formal approach – I just wrote my wishes for those I was blessing. Which, as it turns out, is really the most important component of any blessing.
Let’s start with what a blessing is because prior to my research it was one of those, “I know it when I see it” but couldn’t really put it into words, things. Quite simply a blessing is a gift, a wish you have for others to be well, to be loved, healthy, successful, etc. It is the act, written or spoken, of giving your sincere heart’s desire for someone, or something.
Throughout human history, people have blessed harvests, meals, births, deaths, weddings, homes, children, each other and so much more. While it was once a common practice, today we often leave blessings to religious professionals. We assume that we need a clergyperson or someone with particular training to offer something so special. But the truth is that blessing is a human act that could and should be practiced by each of us.
What might a threshold blessing contain?
- Your wish for people entering your dwelling
- Your wish for those living in the home/room
- Your wish for that space/structure (safety, security)
Here’s an example of a threshold blessing (which was a house blessing, really) that I wrote this several years ago for my coven’s High Priestess on the back of a picture for her entryway:
Trying to write a blessing for the first time can feel uncomfortable; you can grow your comfort with this by practicing. Remember, this is a human activity – not one that requires training. You could start with writing and reciting a blessing to a pet. What do you wish for them? Love? Security? Health?
As a family activity, each person in the family could write a blessing – or a portion of a blessing – and combine them into one. Or some people could be responsible for writing and others for finding a creative way to display the blessing. Crafting a threshold blessing for your home that everyone contributes to is a powerful gift to your whole household.
Here’s a short blessing written on an entryway rug (image from wayfair.com):
Once your threshold blessing is written, you have to decide how to display it. Here are some of the options we came up with in our program:
- Write/paint/draw/print a blessing on a piece of paper to frame and hang from a door or door frame
- Create a mobile with the blessing on it to hang in or near a doorway
- Make a two-sided blessing: craft a blessing for people entering your home on one side, and a blessing for those leaving on the other, and have it hang so it’s visible coming and going
- Write a blessing or word(s) or symbols on a ribbon and tie it to a door knob or hinge, or pin it to the door frame
- Create a plaque to hang out of a piece of scrap wood (to be painted, etched, burned, etc)
Want to dig in a little deeper with this process? Read the story, The Picture on the Kitchen Wall, by Sophia Lyon Fahs. Consider what word, phrase, symbol, or image you or your family might add to your kitchen wall to help bring harmony to your home. Once you’ve decided, craft your kitchen wall hanging together.
Another way to go further is to incorporate blessings into your daily life. Find something you can bless every day (it can be the same thing each day or something different): a blessing at a meal; a blessing for your children before they go to bed; a blessing for your pets. In time with regular practice, we will become the blessings we bestow.
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