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The purpose of these email reflections is to stimulate the God-given longing we all have for that which is truly life-giving, and to encourage sacrificing the lesser, more immediate "satisfactions" for the greater, in all areas of life, so that one may Live and share that Life with others!
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Greetings!
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We sold our house and have no place to go. So I want to write a bit about this issue of "houses", the space in which we live.
Sheldon Swartz
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How Can My "House" Become A Home?
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"In my Father's house are many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you."
- Jesus, in John 14
Have you ever had a dream that was something about a house? These are always intriguing to me. I love to explore questions like: How big is the house? How many stories is it? Exactly where are you at in the house, i.e., which floor, which room, etc. Who else is in the house with you? What's going on in the house? And then reflect on the question: What do you suppose this dream is saying to you? One time as someone was working on her issues, her dream about her house changed from being dangerously close to being swept out to sea to being some distance from the shore. Why might that be? I believe dreams can tell us a lot about what's going on in our own inner space, but of course, not all dreams do that.
Dreams are symbolic and the safest place to start with understanding a dream about being in a house is to think of it as trying to reveal something to us of what it is like to live in our own psychic space. (Don't get psyched out about the word psychic. It is not by definition New Age. It means "of or pertaining to the human soul or mind; mental (as opposed to physical)").
We just sold our house and are in the process of looking for another one, more so after we found out someone put an offer on the house we wanted (which had been on the market for over two years) a day or two before we would have, and their offer was accepted. It was very disappointing since a lot of our desire to sell our house had to do with thinking we could get that one. I felt like Velma had a lot of ammunition she could use, if she wanted to, to hurt me for a long time, since it could easily be said, "If you would have been more on the ball, we would have that house" and I would have to say, "That really seems true."
Now we are looking at what seems like distant second-best options. Things are not falling into place. If we hadn't sold our house, we'd probably at this moment in time take it back. It looks really nice! We like our house! We know the full story is not written yet, so that would be like getting to a part of the story that is not pleasant and thinking we'd rather go back to the preface and treat it as the whole book!
We both know that the physical place in which one lives is not the key to contentment. How one is living in one's own psychic space matters so much more, because that is about soul and spirit. Where we are at in this process is challenging to our individual psychic space and our "couple" psychic space. I don't think I am living all that well in my own "house" through the events of the past few days. This morning the thought of moving out (of my "house") is somewhat appealing to me. (I could find something to at least temporarily lose myself in - not think about what I'm feeling, etc.) I don't see a good way to go in this, and I don't believe Velma does either, unless there's something she hasn't told me today yet!
So, I'm going to leave this email the way I am needing to leave the "house" issue - unfinished, no good end in sight, just a prayer that I can discern the next step that is mine to take in
"God, I don't know what's going on with this house issue. Seems like we did the wrong thing, on one hand. On the other hand we have no way of knowing where this will lead. I've said I like mystery. But I'm not sure how much I like it this way. But somehow I can believe you are using this to open some room(s) for me that I have not been aware of in Your Great House, so that we all live together there with a deeper sense of it being Home. Amen"
I work with individuals, couples, and families to
identify the ways of life and death in their lives and help uncover the
motivation to choose that which leads to life, whether it be through
counseling or spiritual direction. - Sheldon Swartz, MA/LMFT
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