Delighting in Home

Delighting in Home

The house we now delight in

 

 



The village of Androni, which was once outside ofMyrina

Once so different, today this hill is almost entirely built on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you live in the fast lane, or if you take short cuts and accomplish much, you just may not live to a fulfilled old age. Short cuts may mean instant happiness but just think what you may have missed on the way. I read an interview with the actor Emma Thompson the other day and she said that she’d never try to look 35 if she was 55, why try to miss all the good times that one has when living through 36 to 55!

It’s much the same when building or renovating a house. You can pay to ‘have it made over’, or you may get in a TV team and have it done in an hour or two, but why miss the fun of creating something, slowly, that is intimately you!

Today the 'village' hardly exists, it is a suburb of Myrina

Do you want to look back on life as see it as a blur? Why not relax, unwind, and enjoy the real thing, home-brewed or barista-made coffee, concert hall music and live theatre rather than instant coffee, pop music and police soapies. The slow and careful experiences are more likely to remain with you because you have invested time and been confronted with moments (perhaps hours) of boredom and frustration in order to glean that joyous delight of feeling at one with our wonderful world.

Someone once said, Where does reality lie? In the greatest enchantment you have ever experience. This may be in somebody’s arms but it may be in a really well cooked meal or in a room or garden where design and context come perfectly together.



Some early plans of the house

 

 

 

 

 



Some early plans of the garden



There will always be some enchantment when you fully enter an experience, and you can almost experience it again when you remember that that experience. This can happen when you create a house or garden slowly and go back at times over that experience. And if you fully entered into the experience, you find it will be a place where you can dwell at peace, within the past and with the present.

I once taught the history and techniques of dance, and though it felt good to teach a group ‘a dance’ for me there was a special joy in being able to help my students dance creatively, to help them see how to make space and rhythm visible.  In the same way I can see that the homemaker and gardener can also be creative; they can be an artist who first learns certain rules but then is able to forget them in order to render what one writer called the radiance of all things. They will not just be making a house or a garden, but creating something that is an expression of life, and of whatever they are engaged with at that time. They will move past structures and restrictions of style and begin to play with colour, shape and form.

Houses That Speak to Us



My painting of the house when we first arrived

While I tend to wait for houses to speak to me I can enter a garden and feel immediately what could enhance the space. Houses take time because they have histories that usually unfold slowly. Also one needs at least a year to get to know the light and shadow of each room.





The house about thirty years ago

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A similar view of the house today

 And once you know the light, it is all about symmetry and contrast. As in dance in a home one is able to make some things ‘the same as the other’ and to make other things subtly different. A homemaker artist will create a rhythm of tensions that sets the scene for a resolution. What is wonderful is that there are no limits to the human capacity to create new scenes of beauty, or nooks of comfort.

Gardens That Enhance Life
 I am a tree person. Not quite a sylvan-spirited but I feel that trees ‘talk’ to me. This has to do with their character, dignified or flighty, digging deep and strong into the earth or spreading their flirty curls out into space.  I can sense the way a tree might grow; the shape it will take. In a garden space this enables me to envisage the shape that is called for that will bring out the potentials of that place.

In the well-made garden there may be places for meditation that you want to come back to. In a spot that reveals a particular view you may look beyond yourself and find hope for the future,. In some enclosed space you may find security and peace.

One could also allow ones imagination to soar. For instance, one might say, 'this corner is suited to a pond and small fountain because here I can imagine there could be an entrance from the garden into a deep cavern that lies beneath the earth. While, to place such a feature over there would be completely wrong, and it always look as if it was imposed for no reason other than someone wanted a pond and fountain’. Though this might sound a bit 'way out' it can also be an intuitive ability to be in touch with a particular place, and the results will be unique, not just a copy from a book.

The potting shed

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. John Burroughs
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise man grows it under his feet. Proverb

The Atelier

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. Henry David Thoreau

Making a story of life in Greece

While you are creating your home you will no doubt have a collection of stuff that you need to keep referring to or that you might need to refer to later. Why not put that ‘stuff’ in a journal, and use it to record the journey you are taking while putting your house or garden in place.



Various journal records of our renovation journey

To journal is to find ways to catch the patterns of everyday living. It’s hard to see these when you are living up close to them but in a journal you can later look back and see the bigger picture. If you want, each page can also include photos, sayings or cuttings. It’s surprising how quickly you can forget things that were so important at the time. When you go back again you often find that some little irrelevant details have some interesting elements that you’d not noticed before. You can even link aspects in a way that highlight the importance of this part of your life’s journey.





Colours and wall and wood paints recorded

 

 

 

 

The progress photographed

Or it might be here, in the atelier you are making something from things you have collected from your travels, or from your garden, or from your friends and children. This kind of activity is not just a fiddling time waster, but time taken out to create something out of the minutia of your life.

When talking about maths, Poincare suggested that the most useful solutions are also the most beautiful and elegant, precisely because they emphasise the dynamic relationship between events. By defining a dynamic relationship between the events ( in your atalier) with a journal, a picture, a poem, or even by making lavender bags, you create something useful that is also beautiful and elegant.

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day – like writing a poem, or saying a prayer.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Delighting in the Present - at home!

I once took a wheelbarrow slowly pulling up the weeds; along the paths and an arms-length to either side. I worked slowly with bare fingers, pulling up the small weeds and their extensive roots, out of the damp soil. When I came in from gardening I cleaned my nails and then I began lunch. I placed young small potatoes from the garden in one saucepan and broccoli in another. Then I made a choux sauce, rich with an egg, and added a small tin of tuna. A simple meal but one I liked. These are simple, practical, jobs but to be aware doing them holds you together; they put your feet on the ground, your knees on the soil, and a wooden spoon in your hands. Meanwhile the mind might flashes to the future – the holiday trip in three weeks time, the family duties to do before then. The ambiguity is always there, we are always here and there, but it’s good to be aware of the importance of enjoying being in the present.