Home: The Nest of Rest

In the busyness of our lives, home should be a place of peace and rest, a feeling of purity and harmony that also comes from being clean and orderly. In contrast to the past 5 years, where books, journals, dishes, and kitty fur line the floor, counters, and sofas, I can now put everything in its place and develop a discipline of cleaning. While working in Japan, my junior high students did this for 15 minutes everyday at lunchtime, what they called soji, or the efficient and regular ritual of cleaning. More than removing dirt, it reflected the interior act of cleansing one's heart and mind. Taking shoes off also was a symbol of releasing the old to experience the new. At the Japan House at the U of I, we would also use the Tsukubai, or water basin, directly after removing our shoes, as a way to wash away the dirt of the world in preparing the heart for a tea ceremony. Perhaps in this way, all of life should be a tea ceremony and our homes remain as tea huts of harmony, purity, respect, and tranquility!