tending the summer hearth

Where is your hearth - the place where sparks are fanned to flame, where warmth is encouraged? Around the kitchen table? The piano? The barbeque? The coffee table? Traditionally, the hearth was made of stone or brick and provided a cozy gathering and warming place. It was also used for life-giving tasks like cooking and heating the home. Tending the hearth was an essential job - to keep the home fires burning so that the people living there could be sustained.

For me, tending the hearth is about intentionally caring for the souls in our home. This means our little family, but also the people who enter. You've heard me bemoan the state of our house, my yearning for a cleaner place, my desire to offer hospitality in meaningful ways. All of these feel like part of the whole hearth tending package to me.

tending the hearth: that ratty, fragile nest with strong, solid hearts within

Today I'm thinking about what hearth tending could look like this summer. And I'm struck by how I can slice up this word "hearth" into h/eart/h: hearth, earth, and heart. I think that all 3 need tending; all 3 have deep spiritual connections to each other. So here's my not-yet-finished list of ways I'd like to tend the hearth this summer.

tending the hearth:

• de-cluttering, giving away, organizing
• putting the house on a diet
• trying to make good food together
• not letting fresh produce rot in the fridge or on the counter - eating it or preserving it before it's too late
• savouring meals
• clearing space; leaving room for surprises; keeping an empty shelf
• inviting others over for backyard barbeques even if the house is messy
• singing around backyard bonfires, making s'mores and banana boats and tinfoil dinners
• making a rainbow of jelly: raspberry (red), red hot pepper (orange),  dandelion (done! bright yellow), mint (green), blueberry (blue), grape (purple)

tending the earth:

• gardening, watering, weeding
• walking
• biking
• learning more perennial flower names
• learning to identify some more bird songs
• pondering the heavens by learning the names of the different kinds of clouds (I forget them!) and learning a new constellation

tending the heart:

• reading just for fun
• slowing down and being still
• eating a whole container of peanut butter chocolate ice cream all by myself
• swimming under a starlit sky in the middle of a northern lake
• singing with my husband as he strums on the guitar
• taking a sabbath rest once a week
• taking a "digital sabbatical" while on holidays or day trips with my family
• praying by paying attention to the little things, and expanding them out through photos or writing or talking to others
• being open to surprises and to nudgings of the Spirit

What ideas do you have to tend the h/eart/h this summer?