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"The
Challenges of Change - moving
& finding Home within"
— by Connie Habash
We've
all been through changes in our lives, and they affect us in different
ways. Not long ago, I moved to a new town an hour from where I used to
live, and it has brought many things up for me. The biggest challenge
was recreating the sense of "home", the sanctuary that many
of us spend a good deal of time cultivating in order to feel safe, secure,
and like we have a place we belong.
For most of us, that "home" is
created in our place of residence, but it's also developed in the community
we participate in, the place we work, and the people we spend time with.
Imagine (I'm sure many of you have experienced this) having all of those
things that made you feel at "home" suddenly gone, and asking
yourself, "What really is home anyway?"
As I asked myself this question, I decided
to sit down and meditate, because I know that our true home is within
our deep spiritual connection to the Divine, however we experience that.
And this phrase, albeit a bit silly, came to me - "Home is where
the OM is."
Those of you that know me fairly well and
understand my connection to chanting will understand where that came from!
But truly, when we chant the sound OM, which embodies the divine in the
very nature of that sound, we actually are invoking our inner home, right
here in this moment. I realized that I could go anywhere, anytime, and
I'd be right at home, if I only remembered to connect to that Divinity,
that spiritual Self within. The best way I personally know how to do that
is to chant OM... and feel that connection. And you know, it did help
me get through the transition, and still does.
You can try it right now. Just sit down
for a moment and chant OM three times, slowly, and leave some space in
between for feeling the energy within yourself. If OM doesn't resonante
for you, you can try simply meditating on the inhalations & exhalations
of the breath, or you can visualize the form of the Divine that you relate
to (such as Jesus, Buddha, the Goddess, etc) - there are many ways to
bring that sense of "home", your true spiritual home, into this
and every moment.
Remember that the ancient spiritual masters
teach us that our attachments to the external objects of the world, such
as our physical place of "home", can sometimes hinder us from
experiencing our essence, the spiritual home that is within us all the
time, everywhere. I realized that as I left one physical home to go to
another, my true home has never left me, and never will.
Copyright 2000 - 2004, by Constance L. Habash