Rooms for the Soul

Your trash, his triumph!

2010-11-30T15:40:00.000-08:00

I'm still smiling from having watched Dan Phillips on TED.:) Not only does he reach into those 'primal' parts of the human being, he speaks beautifully too. Enjoy this!

TED VIDEO Dan Phillips' Houses

Image from Phoenix Commotion

Something I'd like to have by my bed :)

2010-11-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

"Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away" - Author unknown

“Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you.” - Marsha Norman

I love this Chest of Dreams. It happens to be a clever makeover by an 'Ikea Hacker' :)

I'd love to have one of these close to my bed :).

So, where does your Soul hang out to dry its tears?

2010-04-28T01:14:00.000-07:00

Oh crikey! What can I say? I've been away way longer than I would have wanted to. And I feel I've been neglecting this little corner of my soul. And I know it's missed me too.

The interesting thing though, is that I've not been completely away from soul work. You see, I've been writing for an Interior Design blog. And although they're not paying me anyway close to what my writing is worth (never mind the research that's involved), I'm building a profile and, for the moment at least, I'm choosing to think of it as 'being paid to learn'.

(Those of you who read this blog and my other one that bears my name will know that I've opted to slave myself. At least until I become so well known and sought after that I'll be the one commanding my rates and I won't be shy about it either, I can tell you now).

Oh sure, I'm not making enough to buy myself a decent pizza marinara but hey, I'm getting my name out there. That's got to help. And, I get to write about something I love. Yeah!

Still, all this is not quite in the vein of this blog, So, if you'll excuse me just one moment while I make a slight adjustment to tone, voice, style and content.

Ah, that feels more like it.

So, I was wondering,which part of your dwelling place you go to when you're feeling sad. Is there a particular room that you find greatest comfort and consolation in? Or, if you happen to live in a no-room studio apartment, which corner or spot do you get drawn to? Or perhaps it's your garden that provides balm of healing for your soul?

And, what does your sad sanctuary look like? What have you got in it? Does it look anything like these?

"" the soul

vanishes

the soul. vanishes, into the

shape of things"

—ROBERT KELLY, “The Blue”.

Quoted in "In the Words of James Hillman"

"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul." ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

What does your Soul want on your walls?

2010-04-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

What would you put on the walls of your home if you were totally unconcerned about what others might think? A comment from Design on Design to my last post, Multiple Personalities need Multiple Rooms, prompted me to ask myself this question and now I'm asking you.

What do you currently have on your walls? What effect do they have on you? Do they inspire you? Excite you? Challenge you? Take your imagination on flights of fantasy? Do they express or feed the many characters of your soul?

There are any number of things we put on our walls - family photographs, tribal artifacts, collections of souvenirs and paintings, of course. Would you have art like this on your walls? If so, which ones? And which walls?

Image from here

3-D Street Art Image from here

Image from here

Perhaps something from Amazon?

Multiple personalities need multiple rooms

2010-04-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

"I like to imagine a person's psyche to be like a boarding house full of characters. The ones who show up regularly and who habitually follow the house rules may not have met other long-term residents who stay behind closed doors, or who only appear at night. An adequate theory of character must make room for character actors, for the stuntmen and animal handlers, for all the figures who play bit parts and produce unexpected acts. They often make the show fateful, or tragic, or farcically absurd" James Hillman

Does this at least partly explain why we have different rooms in our homes, each designed and decorated to satisfy our different characters, their particular moods, fetishes and indulgences? I'm inclined to think so.

So, how do we create individual spaces for our soul dwellers, some of whom are only too ready to show up for extravagance and vulgar ostentation and others who must be lured out with the assurance of quiet, reflective nooks and brooding crannies.

"Ah, the perfect brood 'bode"

Image from here

"Now she won't be able to see me"

Image from here

"Oh, come on Henry, don't be such an insufferable bore"

Image from here

What about you? What kinds of spaces do your characters seek out?

'Going off your tree' - could that be soul-speak for 'normal'?

2010-04-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Not that I've seriously considered living in a treehouse but I do find the idea rather enchanting.

As I was searching for treehouses on the web, I did wonder how living in one might be different to living in a house on an elevated block of land or living in an elevated house on a block of land with lots of trees around it. Would the views be all that different?

But even if the views were similar, I imagine the actual living would be different. Or would it? As I found more examples of treehouses, I couldn't help feeling that you could pretty much replicate on-the-ground-living up the top of a tree (as you'll see in the last few images).

Still, there's the 'enchantment' factor that you might not find on the ground which to me is the 'soul-factor'. I can't help feeling that the soul is essentially nomadic. It's as if 'going off your tree' is normal in soul-dom.

The soul will not be limited to any one dwelling or lifestyle and yet, it sometimes appears to yield to the egoic mind and its demands for constancy and stability and predictability. Then again, does it yield or is it forced into submission? I don't know. It just seems to have its own je ne sais quoi.

"No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness" Aristotle

Do you ever detect a part of you that sometimes wants to break out and just do its own thing? Do you ever get the feeling that there's so much of life you want to explore and experience but you eventually settle for something a bit, if not a lot, less adventurous?

Image from here

Refresh the soul and then be ready to soar

2010-03-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the sense but the soul" Oscar Wilde

I was looking for somewhere to rest my soul, a place where no demands would be made of it. Just a place to refresh, regroup and start again. And here is where, after some searching, I felt I'd found it.

Image from http://besttopdesign.com

I felt the muscles in my face stretch as I smiled. I felt energy flow through me once again, making me realize how congested and stagnant it had previously been.

With a fresh(er) mind, I began to wonder about this room and what struck me was this: How does a space that appears to be full of stuff still breathe harmony and exude a sense of freedom and comfort?

In this case at least, I think it's got to do with the light and gently bright colors that are repeated in every part and every purpose of the room. It's enchanting in a very different kind of way that I usually experience 'enchanting'.

I love the fact that you can be hidden without being in the dark as you work in that spot under the bed. There's privacy without its typical 'cloak of darkness'. That feels playfully nice.

I think it's a room designed for a teenager but I could easily make myself comfortable and efficient in it. For a while. After that, having got its rest through a combination of harmonious space and creative work, my soul's mood might rise into a space for higher thinking. A space like this perhaps?

Image from http://www.ahoys.com

The following items are available at Amazon.com

"Plan with audacity. Execute with vigor" - Requirements of a Soul

2010-03-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

"Plan with audacity. Execute with vigor" Christian Neville Bovee

I fear this is going to be a very weird post so stay with me at your own peril.

I plan to be rich. Extremely rich. So that I can buy the things that I want. Like a house which is so green the garden plants will fight to stay indoors. In case you're wondering, I'm talking environmentally friendly green.

Container homes at The Daily Green

Redondo Shipping Container Beach House by De Maria Design

Image from Canada's Bark Design Collective

I also want to be rich so that I can give people - my family and friends and anyone else who could do with some help - things that they want and things that they need, like money, for instance, or a house, or to set them up so they can pursue their passions.

And I want to be rich so that I can travel to places in the world where I can have experiences that I imagine having. Like walking through temperate forests during spring or fall and gazing at mountains veiled in mist as I lose myself and sitting on soft, fresh grass by cold streams, watching their water gurgle and slide and cuddling up or dancing around a warm outdoor fire and listening to a haunting medieval flute and the soul-piercing runs and sustains on a guitar played by people whose souls desire to be nowhere else, doing nothing else.

Image from here

Oh, gosh, I just had an out-of-body experience then, transported to those things I'd described. It was a goose bumps moment.

But this plan of mine. I'll have to be honest. I don't really have one. All I have is an intention. An intention to have all the money I want to do all the things that I want to do. Unless, of course, there is a way of doing all the things I want to do without money. If so, can someone please show me the way?

So, here I am, a head full of intention and empty of plan. If I keep writing, will someone sign me up for a book deal? Might that be a plan? Would it be good enough? Robust enough?

It seems a very thin plan indeed. Not enough oomph and guts. It seems too, mmm, easy. Could that be what makes my plan audacious? To make it so easy that it will have everyone telling me what a completely pie-in-the-sky plan it is and that it's got about as much as a snowball's chance in hell? That even a snowball would have better chances?

Shall I be audaciously simple and simple-minded with my plan? Would that be enough audacity? Or is there a certain kind of audacity that I must have? Or more simple-mindedness that I need to bring to my plan to make it audacious?

Does audacity require extremity? Do I have to be extreme in my simple-mindedness? That can't be too difficult, surely? And surely that's something I could execute with vigor? No? I'd be grateful for any suggestions.

So what's wrong with a bit of fun?

2010-03-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

I'm consistently drawn to the unusual, the unexpected, the fun-for-fun-sake, aren't you? And I love it. I'm certain my soul has its roots in the dark, eccentric world of 'bizarre', not that any of the items below are all that dark or bizarre. Not at all..

"Well, honey, the cadillac would've been better, but I'll settle in this " Image from here

"That's better, now no one will hear us" Image from here

"It'd be easier to look for your contacts if I didn't have all this stuff on me"

"I said to scratch my back, not set it for dinner"

Have you got some unusual items to share? Please do.

Now that I'm on a steroid prescription for window shopping, my soul's gone nomadic

2010-03-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

Having this blog has made me explore the world of furniture and housing and dwelling places like I've never done before. Main reason why I haven't before? I never thought I could afford anything I really liked so why bother? How sad was that!

But window-shopping is endless joy. The soul absolutely craves it. It reflects its hidden fantasies. It mustn't be denied or it gets dull and gloomy and prone to depression.

You don't have to buy or own everything you see and like but that doesn't have to stop you from enjoying their beauty or the ingenuity in their craftsmanship or design.

Now that I've given myself a steroid prescription for window shopping, I've begun to notice a change in my thinking and behavior.

Whereas I used to immediately dismiss something as unaffordable because my focus was on what I believed I could not afford (which made me feel pretty powerless and unsuccessful and other yucky stuff like that), now my focus is on what I like and am intuitively drawn to.

It's true my self-moderating or soul-sqeezing habits have their roots in my 'financially challenged' childhood where I learned it was pointless even thinking about what I wanted. I was never going to get it.

But the worse crime was committed, I think, while I was married and when I was consistently discouraged from getting stuff I wanted. I'm not blaming my ex-husband for it. He was equally a victim of deprivation as I was. We were just witless partners in crime. The more he objected, the more I insisted, and often with things that I hadn't really, truely, hopelessly fallen in love with. How tragic was that!

Anyways, fast forward and here I am, once again stepping out with true (not tempered) childlike wonder and glee to explore the world of furniture and furnishings and soulful living places. What a ton of fun! And here's some of my latest findings.

Tool-less, easly fold-away-able, highly portable, space-saving furniture, described as particularly suited for nomadic living :) You'll find more at their makers much understated site, Seed International.

Now, I should clarify one thing. I have no idea how much any of this costs. I can't imagine they'd be expensive though. I have them here not because I've got a deal with Seed (nice thought) but because I happened to discover them on one of my nocturnal prowls on the web for unusual furniture and I was so taken by their simplicity and elegance and user (read 'female' if you wish) friendliness, I had to share it with you.

So, tell me, do you dismiss things because they may be beyond your means? Or do you allow yourself to enjoy things that you're drawn to even if you know you may not be able to afford them? Yet? :)

Oh, btw, look what I found when I did an Amazon search for 'seed furniture' :)

Nowhere close but I'll take it :)

An 'exhibitionist' room and a 'doodler' room - which would your soul prefer?

2010-03-25T01:50:00.000-07:00

I had no idea I was going to have so much fun with this blog. I mean, look at what I've discovered, and not just about designs and furniture but, more excitingly, about myself.

OK, call me self-indulgent or narcissistic if you like. I don't care because I'm finally allowing myself to discover new worlds out there.

For someone who has been so absorbed in her own world for so long, afraid to check out the universe, on and offline, and not realizing how absorbed and afraid she was, this is an achievement of proportions equaling a turtle swimming across an ocean. The only difference, I suppose, is that the turtle probably doesn't think it's a big deal. But I do and I'm not ashamed to say so.

I suppose I should explain. But only briefly. Actually, let me see if I can do it in one sentence.

I have been a scared, prudish (who would have thought?), better-than-thou (might that also be prudish), foolishly modest and unimaginative in aspiration or ambition, critically dismissive of luxury, inventiveness and fun for their own sake woman with a largely un-lived life. Alright, I may be exaggerating here, but not much, I assure you. Still, let's move on.

So, what have I discovered? Well, look at the hotel room below, for goodness sake. It's fully mirrored.

This image from here

When I first saw it, I thought it was an outdoor room, but it isn't/ How's that for creating an illusion of space and seamlessness? Just don't anybody have a tantrum and throw things at the wall or the ceiling. (Now there's an interesting thought - people don't tend to throw things vertically when they're in a rage, do they? Any idea why?)

I like the idea but I wonder if it would tire me after a while, you know, make me feel exhausted? I kinda think the soul would object too. Too much exposure when I know it prefers to emerge cautiously and unnoticed.

This next one is just one cool room, perfect for the soul to scamper around and doodle. I wouldn't mind having a room like this in my house but I'm not sure I'd sleep in it. Wouldn't rule it out completely though. With different lighting, it may feel quite cozy in the evening, like being surrounded by my best friend-thoughts.

This image from here

It looks like it's designed for a child. Mmm...for a couple hours perhaps, but I wouldn't have had my kids in there all day and night. The senses need a rest, some quiet spaces.

I do think it's a great idea for an adult's room too. A doodle-ed room. I'd have replaceable or, better still, wipe-over walls (no, they musn't need chalk or toxic inks to write or draw on), ones that you could easily clean so you could doodle away to your soul's content.

Exhibitionist or doodler? Perhaps a bit of both?

Do you know what your life work is and do you know that you know?

2010-03-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not trying to be clever here because this is a question that I've been trying to answer for a very long time. To be honest, I'm actually ashamed to admit it. You'd think that by my age I'd have surely got something so fundamental sorted out. Sadly, that ain't the case.

I've done a few different things in my life, job-wise, but I've soon tired of them and so moved on or moved away. I often think of some of the things I might have done or might still be able to do and I wonder why I didn't or why I don't.

It's not that I'm desperately unhappy or even bored. It's just that I feel there's so much more for me to experience and enjoy and I believe that the thing that I give most time and energy to should be the where and how I have these experiences. Is this unreasonable? And please don't tell me it's unrealistic because I beieve that reality is what we make, not what happens to us as we passively sit on the side-walk of life.

So, I guess, the question I need to ask myself is: Why am I not making the reality that I really want?

Now, here's where everything I've read and heard about the Law of Attraction might provide some answers. Well, I've gone down this alley and I've discovered some really useful things. Like how to use visualization and how to get clear about your beliefs and change them if necessary and also, how to take action.

I'm not saying I've learned everything that I need to learn from it but I'm sure I've learned enough to help me create the reality I want. So why am I still feeling like there are worlds out there that I so want to explore?

Thomas Moore, a psychotherapist and author and who is greatly influenced by James Hillman, writes about the soul's work in his book, A Life at Work.

Now, I've noticed that you cannot read about 'soul' without also reading about 'alchemy'. Sooner or later, you're going to have to meet it and get to understand it. Hopefully, at some point, you'll actually experience it. So, why am I mentioning it here? Because the overriding theme of Moore's book, A Life at Work, is alchemy.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to go into alchemy in this post but I will in other posts as I feel it's critical to 'soul talk'. But I mention it here because, according to Moore, our life and the work that we engage in is a constant process of refining our understanding of our soul's purpose, the work that it is here to do.

I like that. I like that a lot. You see, it's so easy for me to dismiss some things that I've done (and even things that I'm doing) as unimportant or less important than others. But to see it as a meaningful and critical part of understanding my soul's purpose, which is really about doing what I want to do and knowing that it is what I want to do, would be nice.

I like this thing that Moore says:

"We humans are not evolving but circling, and that the stuff of our souls keeps coming back for more attention and more living.."

It moves me through these different worlds

2010-03-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Mark Knopfler, Brothers in Arms

I don't know why but these lines have been wandering through my mind these last few days. Could my soul be drawing me to something? I'm sure it is but I'm not yet sure to what.

The song is about war and its foolishness or rather our foolishness to engage in war.

'Guernica' by Pablo Picaso. Image from Wikipedia

Despite its message, it's a song with a soothing melody played by Knopfler's sometimes haunting guitar and sung in Knopfler's always deeply grounded voice. It's like a mother tenderly nursing her child's bruised knee (and ego) while telling him how silly he is to get into a fight with his best friend.

I'm constantly moving through different worlds without always taking the time to explore them. Then again, it doesn't always seem necessary. Besides, I think that, mostly, these worlds are revealed in the things that I find myself doing and the spaces that I find myself moving to or away from.

A phone call takes me instantly into one world. A certain taste on my tongue into another. So does a piece of clothing that I put on or take off. Or a certain sound. All these transport me into very different worlds.

Sometimes I try to occupy several worlds at one time without being fully there in any one. That can often leave me dissatisfied. Like when I eat and watch television at the same time. What a waste of food as the television dominates and the food's hardly tasted.

Perhaps that's not such a bad thing when the food is lousy. But I've learned not to turn the television on when I'm eating a meal that I've put a lot of soul into. That's when I really enjoy the food, soul food.

Or take my writing. Sometimes, I sit in my courtyard to write. There's just a fence with regular gaps that 'separates' this part of my dwelling place from the surrounding park dominated by two elderly fig trees and their far-reaching branches.

This image from Wikipedia

Picture by benny at Home Office Snapshots

Other times, I come indoors to write at my desk. Here, I sit looking through a large, glass window into the same park. I feel a little less connected when I'm here but I also feel a little more protected.

Picture by Jill Seidner and sighted at http://home.officesnapshots.com/

In the evenings, when my back starts to ache from having sat too long in my 'executive' chair, I gather up my laptop and keyboard and nestle into my L to continue writing.

As I move from one space to another, things shift. Actually, things have already shifted,which is what causes me to move in the first place.

Do we grow, move, shift into our spaces? Or do they grow, move, shift into us? Or do both happen? Am I moving between worlds or just viewing the same one from different angles?

"We're fools to make war on our brothers in arms"
Mark Knopfler, Brothers in Arms

Soul movement and Mood Swings, Not!!

2010-03-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but I've noticed that my mood can change rapidly.

Now, before you continue reading, having smugly concluded that I've got a monstrous case of pre-menstrual or menopausal symptoms, just let me clarify one thing.

These are not mood swings from 'I could wring his *#%* neck' to 'Honey, why don't you let me massage that tired back of yours with my twin-top?".

They are just changes, fluctuations, if you will, or 'flow' or something that's not associated with extremes, especially extremes of a hormonal, female kind.

But I digress.

My last post was about lighting, in an obtuse sort of way, I guess. And I find that I'm still fascinated by it (No, not the post but the lighting). I've probably been fascinated by it all my life without realizing it.

I'm fascinated by how much light (and its absence) really affects us, causing changes, fluctuations, flow, whatever, in (or should that be 'of'?) our mood.

This image from http://archinspire.com/

Just a few minutes ago, for instance, following a brief shower (it rained), the park behind my apartment looked like it had been to a funeral - dark and somber, it waited to be consoled. And it was. In a flash.

Literally before my eyes, as if someone had clicked the forward button on a slide show, sunlight flooded it! The entire park smiled as the sun's light played with the leaves on its trees and the grass on the ground.

Now that was one 'wow' moment for me. It was then that I realized how I'd been feeling just a moment before - heavy, dull, uninspired and probably uninspiring.

Which brings me to the real subject of this post - natural lighting for our rooms and what I feel the soul likes.

This image from http://www.nabuzz.com/

In my last post, I'd concluded that the soul prefers soft lighting. Perhaps I should have said diffused light - would that be a classier phrase to use? And when you couple that with some of the soul's artwork like you see in the image above, well, I can't imagine the soul not smiling, can you? What an absolutely genius idea!

But, you might be wondering, why does the soul shy away from bright light? It's not a vampire, is it?

"Until the culture recognizes the legitimacy of growing down, each person in the culture struggles blindly to make sense of the darkness that the soul requires to deepen into life". James Hillman

It can be very tiring being in the light all the time, especially if it's light that doesn't change like the lighting in an office. It's like being in a perpetual conversation with one person and hearing the same thing over and over again. You're stuck in the same groove.

But natural light is always changing and its changes allow our mood to change as things flow - thoughts, ideas, feelings, movement. It means things are moving. It means being alive. Well alive.

A room with two views

2010-03-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

It's not as if I seek to shun
the fairest light of rising sun
Nor do I wish it ever stay
that glowing orb at end of day
But I, your soul, am freer in
the softer shade of light within

"Girls are better than boys!"

"No, they're not! You can't even ride a bicycle."

"Girls can cook but boys can't."

"Can you cook? You can't, you stupid girl."

"Don't say I'm stupid."

"You're stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.."

"Mummy, J said I'm stupid. I want you to smack him"

"J, don't call your sister stupid."

"She's a girl and she's stupid".

"She's not stupid."

"But she's a girl, so there!"

I remember having painful arguments like these with my brother, J, who's three years older than me. Fortunately, he grew into a gentle man who has a great deal of respect for other human beings, male and female.

But, back then (we would have been around 4 and 7), he was a painful older sibling. I could never understand why he used to dislike me so much. Perhaps my arrival had adjusted his world and my parents' a little more than he'd have liked, pushed him off center a bit. Not much, I can assure you! If you ask me, it mostly felt like he was the 'preferred' one.

Ah, but that was all a very long time ago and we've both had plenty of time and life experoemces to help us recover. But what on earth am I doing writing about it here?

Well, you see, there was one room in our very old house where our arguments almost always happened. Perhaps because it was the one room that was so far away from the kitchen where Mum seemed to toil endlessly. There and in the backyard.

I so wanted my brother to like me that I'd often tear myself away from Mum's cozy and reassuring smell and activity to go looking for him. If he were outside playing, I knew I'd have some chance of a not so hostile conversation which allowed me to fake an interest in what he was doing, like riding his bicycle or practicing his overarm cricket bowling with a bald tennis ball. I would have done anything to be on his good side, even sacrifice my sour gums for him.

But if we got into that room, the one with the peeling yellow paint that was no longer as yellow or as bright as it must've once been, it was hands down disaster for me. And no matter what, if J went there, I was sure to follow, like a moth to the light. I'm sure I was the shadow he just couldn't shake off! I must have been an irritation all right!

So there was this small room that was tucked away underneath the staircase and which didn't have a window. It was the room that Mum spent least time in.

During the day, it was dark. At night, it was lit by a harsh, fluorescent ceiling light, one that seemed to want to blind us. Definitely not soul-friendly. I wonder if it's the reason I dislike ceiling lights unless they're purely decorative, have warm tones and are unobtrusive?

Yep, it was the room in which J and I fought nearly all our prickly little battles. Sigh!

I guess it suffered the absence of my mother's care and attention, which probably left enough room for two growing egos and their incompatible views, J's and mine, to jostle.

We survived though, and much more, but I've decided that the soul prefers soft lighting :)

Fancy being a Soul Detective?

2010-03-20T00:51:00.000-07:00

Frantisek-Drtikol-The-Soul--1930Fan

I had a whole torrent of thoughts and ideas (anyone care to point out the difference as I'm sometimes not sure myself?). But then there was this mental tussle - shouldn't this go in my other blog, Thought Bubble Ten, currently under Google scrutiny for supposed spam? (Puhleeeeaseeeeee)

Anyways, it was a good thing, this tussle, as it made me think again about how this blog is different from all others. And so, a reminder to myself (and you) of its main themes:

The Soul
Psychology (yes, clearly soul talk to me but perhaps not so clearly to others)
Creating room s for soul expression

At some point, I shall have to go into some in-depth soul-talk but not today and not now. You see, I really think that the soul is constantly expressing itself, or at least, trying to. We can get in the way which is one reason why I'm so keen to (re)acquaint myself with it. No, not through analysis (though there may be a place for that too) but through observation. (Alright, go ahead and tell me that observation involves analysis. It doesn't but it sure as heck invites it like certain traders in a red light street).

So what do we observe? Why, our dwelling places, of course. And places or spaces that we take partial or temporary possession of and personalize, like our offices or workstations. (Incidentally, did we have workstations before play-station?).

But it's not just our dwelling places or rooms that I'm encouraging us to observe. It's also the other areas that we consider 'ours' or, at least, that we're responsible for, like our wardrobes and pantries and gardens and toilets.

But, you say, aren't all of these expressions of our personality and not our soul?

Ah, what a great question you challenge me with!

Of course they are, but tell me, where does your personality come from?

From.... well...from...uh...well...em...lots of things, like our upbringing (especially our upbringing), our genes, our social environment, our...

Yes, yes, yes, you're right. Of course you're right. But there are other 'right' things in that mix, like the soul, for instance.

Yes, the soul is perhaps the greatest shaper of our personality. The thing is, because of all those other factors, it tends to shape our personality more as a result of suppression than as a result of active expression. Which is why observing all our dwelling places and our shared spaces (including our blogs) gives us vital clues about the soul. It's like they tell us about our personality but hint at our soul. Know what I mean?

"By soul I mean, first of all, a perspective rather than a substance, a viewpoint toward things rather than a thing itself. This perspective is reflective; it mediates events and makes differences between ourselves and everything that happens. Between us and events, between the doer and the deed, there is a reflective moment -- and soul-making means differentiating this middle ground". James Hillman

So here's a little exercise for you: What does the space below tell you about the soul of its creator? Oh, go on. It's not a test and by all means, humor me (and yourself). Just keep it clean :)

My soul takes me to a room of immeasurable beauty

2010-03-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Come, said my soul,
such verses for my body let us write, (for we are one),
that should I after death invisibly return
or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
there to some group of mates the chants resuming
(tallying earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on,
ever and ever yet the verses owning --as, first, I here and now,
singing for soul and body, set them to my name

Walt Whitman, Inscriptions to Leaves of Grass,

I am in real danger of losing myself in the things that I love doing that I may become completely unreachable. Which is why I blog. It keeps me here, talking. Well, pretending to talk to someone, you. It forces me to try and make myself comprehensible, to use words where I may not be inclined to, dissolved and wordless as I can sometimes feel, when I'm lost in what I love.

And when at last I return to some humanly recognizable form, I find myself speaking, dare I say it (?), rather like a poet. And I feel compelled to immerse myself in the language of poetry for it seems to be the only one that I can understand or that understands me.

I could blame my soul. But why do I speak of blame, as if these episodes are harmful to me? They are not, but I find myself trying hard to convince myself of it.

The soul, after all, is a daemon, a guardian angel, a genius, who, more often than not has to cope with or stave off a world determined to rein it in, indignify it with its pathetically low standards. (Robert Zoller writes nicely about James Hillman's daemon here or, even better, go read James' book, The Soul's Code)

Oh,these are the times when my soul easily lures its body into some of the most beautiful rooms in the world like this one:

or this

Image by hanzen_bucket

Can we sue Google?

2010-03-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Oh my! Sometimes I surprise myself.

My other blog, Thought Bubble Ten, which I'd created only a week ago has been deleted by Google, supposedly for spam. If you'd ever seen it, you'd know that spam and I are unacquainted (can we sue Google for contributing to distress?). Well, that's not entirely true. I do get spam in my emails but I hardly look at them, so, yes, we aren't quite acquainted.

Anyways, I requested a review of my blog after getting over my 1-minute devastation and 2-minute indignation and am awaiting the outcome at the time of writing.

For a while, I felt a little lost, like having my home repossessed by the cyber bailif and insensitively pulled down by their hired mafia wreckers . Where was I to go with all my thoughts?

It wasn't long before the light bulb idea of starting another blog came on and I quickly set about looking for a new 'home' (read 'blog') and setting up the 'furniture' (read 'layout') there and eventually got down to the business of writing my first post.

Yeah, it seems that when things get tough, I get more determined (or might that be more inspired?). And that surprises me somewhat.

I'd never really thought of myself as being particularly determined. Enthusiastic, yes, but determined? Well, I guess I must be to start all over again.

Keeping it crispy, TBT

My soul gave its body a treat - a hugely comfortable L-shaped seat

2010-03-18T05:56:00.000-07:00

"And there are times, several hours of a day on occasion, when the soul releases its body in a singular heap upon a seat singularly designed for it".

When I recently moved into my studio apartment, I knew I'd have to be minimal with furniture. But I was also determined I'd be comfortable.

But how do you get such comfort if you can't afford to let the item of choice fill up your tiny space yet still

provide enough seating for at least three guests,
create an elegant, semi-formal and welcoming space AND
be not too close to the television

Tall order indeed. To be honest, these objectives weren't sitting in the forefront of my mind. Rather, they sort of swished around in my mind, vaguely. But I've learned to trust my instincts so that I knew that I would find the perfect piece and that I'd recognize it as soon as I saw it. And so I did.

It was the first piece of furniture I bought for my no-room apartment, even before I bought my bed, realizing quickly that it would make a comfortable and secure sleeping unit too. Since then, I've slept on it when I've had an overnight guest or, when challenged for it, made the ultimate sacrifice :).

Oh, make no mistake, I did get myself an excellent bed in time but there's something quite, mmm...I'm not sure what the word for it is...daring, perhaps, about spending a night on your sofa rather than in your bed.

I know, I know, it says a lot about me, doesn't it, that I consider sleeping on my sofa a rather daring thing to do. It's as if I become a child again, falling asleep in 'inappropriate' places.

Come to think of it, it's not so much daring as abandon. Yep, that's it. Abandon. I suppose I should add that quality to the list of great qualities that my L has - the promise of childlike abandon :) Perhaps it's my soul's little treat for its body.

I'm bringing the abandoned Soul back

2010-03-18T02:09:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm guilty of being redundant. No, not me personally (although there's a case for it, I'm sure) but the tagline I've got for this blog - Soul, Psychology & Creating Rooms. After all, 'soul' is captured in the word 'psychology', where the root world 'psyche' speaks of soul. But clearly, I didn't think it was enough.

You see, modern psychology has somewhat succeeded in taking the 'psyche', the 'soul', out of itself. Desperately wanting to 'grow up' into a 'science', it all but abandoned its roots and its raison d'etre . So I think it's important that I do my bit in returning the soul to its rich field of subjective enquiry from which has emerged such grandmasters of insight into the human soul as Freud, William James, James Hillman, Jung and Thomas Moore.

And what better way to do it than to uncover the soul in some of its most intimate dwelling places - the very rooms of our homes and businesses!

Look, I know it's a tall order I've issued myself, but I'm going to give it my best shot and I hope you'll join this conversation of sorts that I'm seeding here. Please share your thoughts, reactions, your soul and room designs and anything else that you'd like to. I know I'll enjoy them whether or not you agree with me :)