Keeping Hearth~The Practice of Sacred Householding

"HOUSEHOLDER-One who inhabits a house on the Earth while living with God in her heart, or the Goddess in her soul. A difficult sadhana(spiritual practice). In India, one on a spiritual path would be a householder for the first part of the adult life and then become devoted to a solitary practice during the latter years. Sometimes the world catches us though." ~Jeannine Parvati in Hygieia, A Woman's Herbal

I've spent my entire adult life as what can be called a "householder". This is a term that, to me, means that part of the work of my soul on Earth is the work of running a household and all that pertains to it. This type of work, or what one might call "spiritual path", is probably the most challenging and wrought with pitfalls that will test the tinder of the strongest of hearts.  The challenges, however, are great teachers that, when mastered, cultivate great reward. I've not always been conscious and grateful for this form of service because I've often found it to be an oppressive burden placed upon me by conscription from a variety of internal and external forces. One being my dearest and most formidable complex of perfectionism along with a solid, well-embedded pattern of OCD. I also inherited my Italian immigrant grandparents motto of toxic shame that still rings in my ears to this day, "We may be poor but we don't have to be dirty," so clean, clean, clean.