Here I sit.....

....in my office. Yep, you read that right....my office. I have whined blogged endlessly about the lack of progress on our renovations and told how we actually moved a load of stuff into the office in preparation for it becoming a real office. Well, yeah....it didn't. Now, don't get all excited and admiring or anything because....well....it still isn't. However, it is now set out exactly as it shall be after it is painted and new flooring is done.

This is my theory. I have been saying for some time that I find it difficult to work without a designated space that pleases me. I did not use the room that was going to be an office because it wasn't 'finished'. Then I realised that it can still be a pleasing environment to work in temporarily and when the painting and new flooring are ready to be done it will only take an hour or so to move everything out again. Tom agreed, so we did it and I am now sitting at my desk looking out of the window at some big old gum trees, a few cows and the windmill (ok, I'm actually looking at the computer screen but that sounds less poetic and I only have to move my head the tiniest fraction and I can see all that other stuff).

It is a pleasing room. Not least because it is not just any old office. It is our office/gompa or offpa or gompice. We always have a part of the house that is used as our meditation space and as this house is lacking in extra rooms we needed to create a hybrid and this is it. One third of the room is separated by a bookcase and behind that bookcase are our mats and cushions and other meditation paraphenalia. I always tell my meditation students that you don't need paraphenalia to meditate - and you don't - but you can if it helps. I find it helps. So that the room maintains a feeling of warmth I have deliberately avoided furnishing it in a professional officey style. I've stuck to old wooden furniture (desk, drawers, bookcase) and soft lamps and even a few textiles.

The result is a warm and gentle place to work, infused with the scent of Tibetan meditation incense and that peace that develops in the places people meditate. It gets the morning sun and there's nothing more inspiring than being drenched in that kind of fresh new sunlight - it feels like anything is possible. So here I sit, engulfed in the sounds of Deva Premal and watched over by Tara. What could be better?

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha