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With all the crazy, and I do mean crazy going on in the world today, unless you have allowed yourself to become completely brainwashed by the brandishing of politicians, world leaders and media “voices” touting conspiracies and non-stop “news cycles,” you inevitably find yourself in need of sanctuary. Feeling depleted and taxed by life circumstances, it becomes necessary to find that place now matter how hard the entities of lunacy bang on the walls - they cannot get in. Let's face it we all have our limits... even spiritual people who have the infallible gift of discernment and can literally 'see' the truth of evil situations that are being boxed and wrapped up with a pretty bow and left at the doorstep of the mind.

Of course the word sanctuary, which comes from the Latin Sanctus meaning holy, has several meanings. In religion, it can be a temple, shrine or church. Those places may have housed people fleeing criminal persecution. Today there are animal sanctuaries protecting certain species of animals that have been hunted down to near extinction. The main takeaway is that the word sanctuary strongly implies the word “safe” – place where one can feel safe and be safe and more importantly shut out all those voices harassing one’s mind.

A sanctuary may be indoors or outdoors – perhaps a special room in your domain or a peaceful place in the yard or even out in the woods. It could be a quiet moment on a front porch rocker in the evening as the sun sets or some mediation at a home altar. The point is it is THE place for you to go to restore, balance and re-instill some common sense when harsh reality bites you on the butt. Let’s face it, there are all kinds of dangers in the world especially now when world conquest is sought and so-called leaders use mind erosion to help break the spirit.

You get the point here so allow me to digress with a bit of humor about sanctuaries and where an individual might seek a space for one. I am not going to rag on about how or where to establish a sacred space for yourself – it could literally be anywhere in the physical sense because in reality it is only a projection of what is already in your mindset.

You didn’t think I was going to remain serious did you?

So here goes:

One of my younger brothers who was born in the late 80s was part of group of young people who ‘lost religious sense’ in the 1990s. History tells us that the 90s was a pivotal shift how young people viewed religion and turned to self-piety or more New Age spiritual theories. For my brother it was Baba Ram Dass. Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and author. I’m not saying there was anything wrong with Ram Dass – after all a lot of people like him to this day. But my brother was always into extremes so of course he carried things a bit far. He started to dress like Dass (and no offense, but the man was no fashion plate) and quote him at the dinner table much to the chagrin of my parents who were grounded and practical people. Our youngest brother would look at him starry eyed at the supper table and one night finally retorted, “What the hell is he talking about?” for which he was immediately punished and sent to his room for using colorful language at the table. He was six years old. In the meantime my Dass clone 10 year old brother proceeded to bless everyone at the table and point his finger skyward mumbling about the great unknown power until he soon was sent to his room. AND THAT is when we found his secret sanctuary.

Upon entering his room our dad quickly noticed my brother was nowhere in sight. It had only been minutes since his dinner table exploit so there was no way he could have left the house without being seen. The front and back doors had been locked and all the windows shut so where was our little guru?

The youngest brother in his infinite wisdom offered up a solution – “Maybe he went out of body somewhere.” This was followed up by some giggling.

We all went back into Dass Clone’s room and called out my brother’s name to no avail. After several minutes we heard it.

“Ommmmmmmmmmm. Ommmmmmm.”

Sound was emanating from somewhere, but where?

“Ommmmm. Ommmm.”

AH! We found it! My brother’s secret sanctuary?

The closet.

And there we found him. He had pushed his rack of clothes to one side and removed his shoes from the floor so there was a nice empty space on one side. And there he sat like a Buddha on one of our mother’s boudoir cushions, legs crossed, and hands in a yoga position. There were Ram Dass posters on the walls. He even had a portable tape player in there.

Now our dad’s first reaction was to burst out laughing but he held back and requested my brother leave the closet and his bedroom as he performed an exorcism of the closet. Posters were removed, rolled up and excommunicated to the garage. Our mother was ecstatic to get her cushion back. Then our dad had a little heart to heart chat with clone boy in his den.

Not surprising to me but to the rest of the family, our dad knew quite a bit about Ram Dass and had his angle all set to roll. We never knew what he said to Dass Clone but my brother seemed perfectly normal for all intent and purpose shortly thereafter.

So to wrap it all up – establish yourself a sanctuary and go there when needed. What you find out may not solve the problems of the world but it may give you some needed grounding and rebalancing to cope.

Tipping my hat to ya’!

Holmes