Walking Paths of Beauty
It’s an excellent time to “Watch Your Step!” as we gallop into this Year of the Wood Horse, with the heady winds of personal and social transformation whirling all around us. We may have some daring new choices to make along our life’s path, or we may realize that we need some refinement or even a major redirecting of an old path. So it is a perfect time to look at the pathways to our homes’ front doors, where the main “mouth of ch’i” opens to welcome opportunity, abundance and love from far and near.
In Essential Feng Shui(r), we observe and listen closely for the metaphors speaking through the forms and structures that surround us. For example, is the path to your front door easy to find, wide enough to swing your arms, well-lit and safe by day or night, and beautified in some way? If so, this pathway brings grounded support for your life’s journey and any fresh experiences you may be considering.
On the other hand, does this path represent a “rough and rocky road,” an “uphill climb” or a “slippery slope?” If it is too narrow, or lined with prickly bushes or overgrown shrubs, it may be representing a life journey that is difficult, isolating or full of thorny problems and overwhelming work. Often a front entry offers only a cramped squeeze beside a driveway full of cars along a bland and neglected cement walk to a rarely used front door. Such a path symbolizes subservience to the all-important automobile door of the prominent garage. Sometimes there is no “people path” to a front door at all, which delivers the message “go around (or through the garage), this house does not welcome you.”
Over time our sense of belonging and ease of living erodes when there is either no clear path, or a neglected one, to our main entrances. Let’s get back on “Easy Street” with a lovely, clear and well-defined front pathway into our welcoming homes. Here are some suggestions for specific pathway improvements:
If your front entrance requires a walk along a driveway to get to the door, create a “people path” that is located and sized for a more comfortable stroll to the front door, away from the cars. If your front door is actually not visible from the front, or is very recessed on the property, entice visitors, and vital ch’i, to travel the distance, drawn by the sound of trickling water near the door, the notes of wind chimes, or the sight of bright movement with wind catchers and other decorations along the path. If your path is steep, either up or down to the door, create level “landing pads” along the way which allow rest, a sense of stable ground, and a view of something beautiful as a reward for the climb like seating, statuary, strikingly formed plants, lighting, or a grouping of brightly colored potted plants.
Enhance your home’s paths with safety, comfort and beauty and you will reassure the psyche, soothe the weary spirit, and delight the senses with creative inspiration. Your fortunes and outlook on life’s journey ahead will be vastly affected for the better. Pathway-dedicated phrases from the Navajo Blessingway come to mind–”Beauty before me, Beauty behind me, Beauty all around me. May we walk in Beauty.” And, in this extraordinary year of rapid change and new growth, may we all create safe footing on a more joyous, and ever more sacred journey into Love, Light and Laughter!
Photo: cococurtainstudio.com
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