A CONSCIOUS LIVING PRACTICE FOR TODAY – AUGUST 29
Where we love is home — home that our feet may leave but not our hearts.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes
SECURITY BLANKETS
Laura writes: It occurred to me that my three sons have never had security blankets, or any type of object of affection of that nature. Many children carry around an old, torn blanket, or a pacifier, or a stuffed animal that is coming apart at the seams; the object is familiar, loved, and necessary to the child’s sense of safety and ownership in the world. I immediately worried—as parents will—about whether my sons’ lack of security objects said something about their ability to form close attachments. Looking around, though, I reassured myself; they are deeply attached to me, to their father, and to each other, and they each have strong preferences in food, clothing, play.
It occurred to me that my sons carry their sense of safety and security within, and this, more than anything, reassured me. It is what I wish for you, that your safety, and a sense of your sanctity become internalized, interior, so that as you encounter the unfamiliar, as you journey on paths that you have not yet taken, you are accompanied by a guide who lives within you, one who steers you unerringly in the direction in which you need to go—not always the easy way, but the right way for you—and one who blankets you in a warm, loving embrace along the path.
A CONSCIOUS LIVING PRACTICE FOR TODAY – AUGUST 29
Think of an object of affection—a security blanket, if you will—that you currently have in your life. Perhaps it is a piece of jewelry, or maybe something far larger, such as your home. Consider what the object represents to you: security, safety, constancy, your personal history, and so on. How can you transfer these feelings into your essence, into your interior life? I am not suggesting that you rid yourself of the object of affection, but that you identify ways in which to transfer the associated positive feelings inside of your heart to be carried with you wherever you go and whatever you do.
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