Feng Shui Illuminary: Two Houses, A Tree, and A Leaf Bag

I pause. The large orange turkey named John looks at me.  I glance over.  His red head seems to form a smile of memories.  I resume walking towards the end of the hallway with my teenage daughter’s bedroom on the left and the workout room on the right.  Turning right, I step on the elliptical. The flashes of past moments of a Feng Shui journey with my children show themselves clearly.

Our son turns six almost a month after we move into what he nicknames “the rusty house”.  It takes me a moment to understand his point of view until I notice all the windows in this grand old neglected home have rust flaking in all metal lines of the casement crank outs.  The eyes of this house, crusted over inside their lids, can barely open to let in fresh air and sunlight.  The visual beauty and breezes of springtime struggle to enter our home.  Replacing all the windows becomes one item on a very long list. 

Some friends, who muster courage to walk through this house, stare at the disrepair, the hole in the ceiling, the yellowed wallpaper, old, smelly carpeting, dirty dust, layering everything.  They gape at us with fear on their faces.  My husband and I laugh. We reassure them we have a vision.  It’s a structure with good bones.

The long upstairs hallway barely makes the list.  Scraping the wallpaper here and throughout the house becomes my mission.  I do not start this process in the hallway, but eventually venture there and peel away the old skin of these walls.  Weeks into this deep transformation project I know both our children yearn for a different outlet.  The rain keeps them from venturing into the backyard.  They draw on paper with crayons and play with small toys on the floor of the living room. By this time they intuitively know it’s a safe space.  An idea bubbles up inside of me.

“Let’s go buy some paints for both of you…all different colors!”  They look at me with such joy on their faces.  “Okay, Mommy!”  Back from the store I set them up in the long hallway.  There’s no need for drop cloths at this point because the hardwood floor will eventually be covered by new carpeting.  I grab a step stool and let both children know they can paint everywhere on these walls in the hallway.  My son, overjoyed, climbs the step stool and begins painting with sweeping strokes.  “Look, Mommy, I’m an ARTIST!”  My seven year old daughter stands at another wall and paints two houses complete with walkways.

That autumn we notice so many leaves changing.  We walk outside and gather different ones, maple, oak, ones I can’t identify, yellow, red, greenish yellowish, brown.  My daughter becomes so excited.  “Let’s make leaf rubbings, mom! We’ve been doing them in art class.  It’s so much fun!”  Sitting at the dining room table we gather supplies.  Crayons gently moving back and forth on white paper magically creating another colorful, waxy leaf imprint.  It’s better than disappearing ink!  “Mommy, I could paint a tree on the wall upstairs and we could put these “leaves” on that tree!”  My daughter runs to find the brown paint and brushes. The branches fill with taped on cut out leaves we’ve rubbed like a geni’s lamp for wishes fulfilled.

A couple years later a birthday message for my husband appears on the wall in October.   Before Thanksgiving my son surprises me with the turkey on the wall.  “I did it all by myself, mommy!  Julianna gave him the name, John!”  From swooshes of color on the wall to an actual form with a name, I realize these walls will be a place of creativity for our two children for a few years.  I keep thinking at some point I’ll paint them and hang real artwork or family photos.

The next Halloween our son chooses to be a leaf bag.  At first I resist, knowing we can’t make actual leaves stick to his bag.  Maybe it’s that I don’t know how.  However, I remember the leaves stuck on the tree on the wall.  We walk upstairs and gently peel them off the tree symbolically allowing the tree a wintertime look.  With leaves securely taped onto the bag and holes cut out for head and arms his costume is complete.  He wins a “most creative” prize at a neighborhood Halloween parade.

The brown paint tree stays in a dormant leafless state. Inspiration for wall art wanes.  Our lives move forward through many seasons.  New creative life emerges when my daughter begins high school.  Her new friends, intrigued by the unfinished hallway walls of little kid art, ask if they can draw on them.  “Yes!”   Words of love, quotes from a movie, doodles, tic tac toe games, and friends’ signatures fill the empty spaces.  Even though my husband and I purchase a pretty shade of blue paint with good intentions to cover this hallway, we never do.

I step off the elliptical, sweat dripping, and feel renewed.  It is May, again, the nine year anniversary of moving into this now beautiful, deeply transformed, and welcoming home.  Not one room looks or feels like it did.  Yet, one space holds the memories, the freedom of expression, and the messy process, not the refined product of our children growing up and becoming themselves. Now 14 and 17 years old, my son and daughter do not resist my fresh look at this hallway and the inspiration I have to paint a blank canvas for new creations.

Our daughter’s school art creations made their way to a Gallery Hop and the Columbus Airport and other walls of our home.

Our son’s passion for Lego creations continues to fire his imagination.

Laura A. Hausman, Ph.D.

Certified Feng Shui Consultant

Graduate of the Western School of Feng Shui 2004

“Live with what you love and fall in love with your life!”