Why you want a Sanctuary?

I looked out to the tree line behind my home. The backyard is bordered by one immense wall of nature. A curtain of trees nearly 300 feet long meanders along a drainage creek, parting my property in two distinct halves. There is the domesticated, landscaped, homes-association-compliant half where our primary residence sits nestled in subtle hillside. Its hind side is complete with deck, under-deck patio, open stone terrace with in-ground glass-tiled hot tub and grand fireplace, all which are dressed up in pots and beds of herbs, flowers, shrubs, and trees. It is relaxing, comfortable, and welcoming, and it is cared for.

Midway along this long, treed wall sits a bridge I installed a few years back. Its minimal structure carries you from this clean and domestic face of nature to the wild and feral space of a forgotten Kansas farm pasture in the outer reaches of Shawnee suburbia. Unkept for years, it became a haven for brush, rooted with osage orange and cedar trees, and in the gaps where light reaches ground, a fertile land of massive weeds and wild grasses. And like a newly independent young adult free from the domestication of childhood, this nature rebelliously self-expressed to humans by adorning itself in all manners of spiders and webs, an intricate tapestry of poison ivy with thick vines over an inch in diameter, and a dense maze of Bradford pear trees armored with painfully unwelcoming thorns.

And what did I do this winter day I looked back into this unkept landscape? I closed my eyes, and looked into these dense layers of all shades of green and brown with my mind, and imagined a place of human escape and retreat. I saw the Etruscan tombs, the Hopi kivas, treehouses patched together from old windows, a barn with a deck, a sauna with outdoor shower and wooden plunge tub, a greenhouse, a fire pit ringed by tree stumps for seating, and all spaces connected with paths dressed in ferns and herbs and wildflowers.

This is exactly, precisely how a space of your own begins…your imagination, your dreams, your will to create. Somewhere deep inside you longs for your haven for inner harmony, your nest of relaxation and rest, your temple for stillness, recovery, and wellness.

So, when covid nudged me into an unexpected career change, I began my own project to be in service (in typical Libran fashion) to those seeking to create their own private sanctuaries, as well as those seeking to create sanctuary businesses, all rooted in traditions and rituals of wellbeing.

Now, you have a partner, to help you make your wonderful sanctuary dream come to life.