Wherever I am - Wherever you are

Frequently I would draw. As a child growing-up in a tiny and dilapidated Manhattan apartment building, I was fascinated by architecture. My dream was to design homes, to create environments that would nurture the inner and outer self. Well, although I was too young at the time for such important metaphysical distinctions, I did recognize that I wanted to be happier, to feel safer and more free. In hindsight, the intention of becoming an architect was clearly a survival instinct. A soulful attempt to escape the mental and spiritual confines determined by what seemed to be a limiting and lacking physical reality. With only a number two pencil and a lined yellow pad of paper, the spirit used this child's hand, over and over again, to express its divine nature and promise.

A design that I often worked at was that of a ranch style property. It was to someday become my dream house. At first, the idea was simple, a basic ground floor structure with a window on either side of the front door. Eventually, however, I tried to improve upon the idea. I added an extra level, more windows, chimneys, columns, a balcony and a roundabout driveway of course. All of these versions would inevitably end-up balled and tossed in the trash. The house was to sit serenely in the lap of nature. There would be golden sunlight and open space all around it. That was the original and essential idea. The effortless sketch I could never seem to comfortably alter.

Without directly trying, today I find myself sitting in a home that reflects that childhood sketch. And with gratitude and humility, I have come to realize that the safety and freedom once yearned for, in the golden sunlight and open space, existed as much back then as it does now, wherever I am, wherever you are.

E

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