Sacred space and the City

Our sitting room is full of boxes and half wrapped gifts today.  That coupled with various accroutrements that have gathered over the week has created a little bit of a chaotic living environment. So what better day to start thinking about space.

Another theme in my life or even another watchword of mine is space.  As creating a safe, sacred space for both myself and others.  Part of the practice of HR, when I get to do the good bits that is, is providing a space for people to share how they feel and how they are experiencing work.  To me space encompasses both the virtual and physical.  Life can hem us in, especially in the workplace which has served to keep most of us in one-dimensional roles, but with the feeling of space people can start to explore and question which allows them to open up and create their own space within.  Whether it be a manager who is worried about his or her own ability to connect with their team or a subject expert who fears they might become obsolete, I have always want to provide them with a safe space to express themselves without judgement.

But the point of this post is not to talk about my HR career but how that theme has been threaded through my life. And more importantly how my relationship with space will manifest in the next part of my journey.

Namely, my shop.

Shop.  I write this word and it does not do what I want it to do.  Yes I do want there to be things for people to buy or acquire but its not just that, its about the space I want to create.  I want to continue to offer the skills I have garnered from my working career for others to explore and question their own world and create a space within.  To challenge is how to translate that from the confines of a meeting room. Otherwise known as my comfort zone.

In true Piscean style I tend to address my challenges by seeking connection with others.  Since I’ve started writing and exploring what I want to do I have started to share my thoughts and feelings with a number of different people -friends, work colleagues, shop managers and owners and, of course, fellow bloggers.  And it helps.

Now I feel it’s time to add to that and connect with spaces too.  If I want to create a particular space some exploration of existing spaces can only be helpful.  So maybe I need to look at space as I do people – try to be open, listen and relate.

Time to get out there I think, be present and hear what these spaces have to say.