Do you have a sanctuary?

Where I live now, my sanctuary is the big sprawling plantation porch here with a view of the pasture, pond and horses, neighbors cows. I take my coffee out every morning, rain or shine and sit with the view, mid-day and nighttime too. haha

Sounds lovely @Coloma! I can’t wait for our weather to become hospitable again. I miss the outdoors.

I have a study with a large window that looks down into the village a mile away and a thousand feet below. I can see the boat dock from here; my boat slowly gathers barnacles while I play the landsman. It’s nice in here: cool, quiet, a dark wood contrast from the bright white tropical sun outside. A place of regeneration, like a womb. It has high ceilings and a couple of old wooden desks bumped up against each other for a larger working surface. Bookshelves, vomiting books and portfolios and charts and maps, line the other walls and frame the window.

Maggie the cat— when Maggie’s back in town—sits on a window seat and growls at the taunting parrots on the other side of the glass. At night Dave the Dog sleeps under my desk and Sam takes his post on the throw rug at the door. The house creaks in the perpetual Atlantic Ocean breeze. Books and papers everywhere. Two laptops on the larger desk, a stack of terabytes nearby—the digital library. I have a little corner desk with two old laptops in vivisection, guts and chips strewn about the area. It looks like a bomb went off in a library. It looks like every other study I’ve had for the past forty years. I know where everything is though, as long as nobody touches anything. It used to drive my wife —a good woman with a Teuton’s congenital need for order—nuts.

@Espiritus_Corvus and what, pray tell, are vomiting books?

The bookshelves, of course. There aren’t enough of them and not enough room for more.

No, not right now, but it’s always been a huge dream of mine since I’m an introvert and I grew up in an extremely tumultuous environment. I would like my entire house to be a sanctuary, but I definitely don’t have the money to convert it the way I would like to. So for the time being, I’m trying to focus on my bedroom and turn it into a sanctuary little by little. Once I’m done, there are going to be a lot of plants that help cleanse the air and deep, royal colors. Even thinking about it calms me down.

Excuse me, Mariah, I’m a bit self-absorbed today. I forgot to say that I’m happy you finally have a sanctuary. Everybody needs one. I would get quite bearish without mine. I don’t seem to need one out at sea, as the sea itself is sanctuary. The constant, gentle motion of water and air; the life above and below, the awareness that you are minuscule in its vastness, yet an integral part of everything in existence. Once you learn to trust the sea, trust what you see, hear and smell; read the weather and the water, it’s like being in the arms of a living thing complete with its own moods and emotions far more powerful than you. It isn’t disguised like it is in man-made environments. And then you hit land and there is noise and activity, frenzy, most of it man-made and most of it trivial and disconnected from what is actually going on. It can really be too much if you’ve been out too long or too often. I can’t imagine anyone living a sane life without a sanctuary. I’m glad you’ve finally have one.

Some docks.

My library is my sanctuary. I sit in a high back wing chair reading surrounded by books and usually listening to classical music.

Sometimes I just sit.

Anyone who has seen my view understands what my sanctuary is. I also have and amazing bathroom with a big tub.

My entire apartment is my sanctuary. I come home, and immediately feel free.

I’m not sure I ever want to live with other people again, which does not go well with my plan of having children…

^^not unless you get revirginized and change your name to Mary ^^

^ ...and even then. Children are people too, you know?!

For me it’s running, when i’m out alone with just the fresh air & my heartbeat for company, driving myself on, motivated in pursuing my goals…bliss.

@longgone I believe the science is still out on that

^ Ha. I guess!

I’m living with my inlaws right now. My sanctuary is sitting by the pool at their clubhouse around 4:00pm when people are leaving.

Y’all’s hideaways sound lovely :) Anyone have pictures? I have a few of my sunroom:

This is the project table; we got it for super cheap from Craigslist and then refinished and reupholstered it. This terrarium that I made with my friend is on the table. The cilantro I planted in window boxes a few weeks ago is just starting to sprout. This is on one wall, as Bar Harbor is a special place to Matt and me; we spent a summer there for a school project before we were together. Have this print on another wall. And finally, my pride and joy…the aquarium.

I’ll take a pic next time I’m there. Unfortunately, I haven’t been there in a while because life hasn’t been as good lately.

My sanctuary is my garden. Not so much in the winter, but time’s coming up soon that I’ll be out there, getting things to grow!

@Mariah <——-Here is the view from the porch here, in the summer, it is very green right now.

Simply beautiful, @Coloma! Can I come visit?

@Mariah Sure, but you’ll have to do chores with us! lol ;-)