Home Making for My Soul

I was born in the 1950’s.  My ideas about home and Mom and nurturing and comfort live in that era. My body came of age in that time. I often feel the need to go back there to reclaim something important….something about reconnecting my heart to my mind and my body.  A key to a missing link…
The happy home maker of the 1950’s was an illusion…yet she had a purpose. Her job was to create and maintain a comfortable, clean, safe place for her family to come home to after a long day of facing the perils, the trials, the chaos of the outer world of work and school. The iconic homemaker was able to whip up a nutritious, delicious meal for her hungry children and spouse using inexpensive ingredients. She set a lovely table with colorful dishes and clean, ironed table cloths. She comforted and soothed by providing the needed band-aid or chocolate chip cookie. She provided toys and bicycles and roller skates and swing sets for her children so that they could get outside and PLAY! She kept schedules, budgets, routines, and gave structure to daily life that often seemed harsh and “out of control”.
We all know that this wonder woman was a fantasy that many women tried to become. She was an idea, a character, a representative of a feminine ideal that began with the Greek Goddess Hestia. Hesita was and is the one who builds and maintains the hearth. This is the center of the home. The place where heat, light, and cooking happen.
Hestia knows the importance of inner sanctuary. Hestia knows that the sacred inner hearth is the key to inner centerdness and wholeness. She has been forgotten in recent years, but her spirit is sorely needed now. You may see the iconic Mother as the Great Mother, or Mother Mary, or Kuan Yin. She can be “Suzy Homemaker” or your Fairy Godmother, or a combination of all of these. However you imagine this energy, her sole desire, whatever she calls herself is to keep you alive and comfortable by providing you with warmth, light, and nurturing.
I like to think that we all have an inner Hestia. If we did not, we would not be alive. My verions of her is one who  lives in our hearts. We may be very resistant to her. We may be unconcious of her existence. She is here, within us, no matter what we think. She is our life force. She is the one whose job is to nurture us and provide us with the will to keep on living. This comes from her love of life on earth, of life and of the experience in a body on this planet.