Home for the Holidays

Hello Friends!

This year, more than ever, we are truly living into the phrase "home for the holidays."  Due to the direction of our state leaders hoping to curb the effects of the pandemic, we have all spent much time in (or at) our homes this past year.  Working from home is a new normal that is being realized by so many.  Quarantine, for the unwell and those exposed to COVID, is another reality that is touching lives in a deep way.  Still others are considered vulnerable or at risk due to their health and medical status.  In light of all of this, and more, we are all spending more time than usual at home.

The concept of "home for the holidays" gave me a lot to ponder these last few days.  As the song goes, "Oh, there's no place like home for holidays;" but this year the sentiment behind this holiday favorite is different.  In our family, after losing our Father to COVID just a month ago, we will not gather at "home" for this holiday.   For many, while we have been spending more time in our homes, we may not go or get to go "home" for the holidays.  These circumstances led me down a wee bit of a rabbit hole as I considered just what or where is "home."

There are a lot of great sentiments around this concept of home.  "Home is where the heart is."  "There's no place like home."  "Home is not a place, it's a feeling."  All of these have a common thread of the emotion behind the physical place.  The human experience is what makes a place from a house, or apartment, or condo to your home.  This led me to wonder, can you find that sense of home in your own home if it's not the usual place you go "home" for the holidays?  Can you find a sense of home in nature?  at work? in other places? 

My answer was yes.  Each time my family arrives on Beaver Island for our annual vacation, the caretaker of the property where we stay says, "Welcome home!"  And it's true, when I am there, while I never was a permanent resident, it feels like home.  For the time during our stay, we experience life in that place. Meals are prepared and shared.  Memories are made.   It truly does become our home.

All this thought may seem rather deep and "heady" for a monthly newsletter article; but it's December, the last month of the year.  There's no better time to pause and reflect then right now.  So, I embraced the process and dug a bit deeper...  It is my goal that in our time together, whether in person or online, whether in a massage of sound therapy session, whether during an online sound bath meditation or a class or workshop, that I create a sense of home for you as we share time together.  Perhaps, as we isolate in our homes, the interaction and human touch component of a session together will bring your the sense of "home" that is so important.  Perhaps the soothing sounds of my singing bowls, gongs, therapeutic harp, and more will allow you to settle in to a calm space, a space that feels like home.  Perhaps, in our conversation about natural health and wellness you will find the right herb, essential oil, flower remedy, or food to support your journey towards feeling like you are at "home for the holidays."

It is my deepest honor to assist you along this journey to  "hear, see, and feel true wellness."   At the beginning of the year I declared that 2020 would be the "best year yet."  Over and over again, I asked you (and myself) "What one thing did you do to make 2020 the best year yet?"  My answer, as we wrap up this most unique of years...  I have sought to help you find a sense of home amidst these wild and crazy times.  If I can accomplish this, then, indeed, 2020 has been the best year yet.  AND I am doubly blessed by this.  Because, in so doing, I found a sense of "home" as well.

May you be blessed at this most wonderful time of the year.  May you know that you always have a place to come home to at 7 Notes Natural Health.  As always, I am grateful to be your massage therapist, sound therapist, or natural health consultant.  Stay safe.  In health and wellness ~ r

Rob