Bridging the Holy Land with our Sunburnt Country
A Journey from East to West; North to South
A Home with a HomeLand
Dearest Reader
As we prepare to welcome a new year, another turn around the sun, I can’t help but reflect on Erica Bauermeister’s gorgeous book - House Lessons - Renovating a Life.
As often occurs in my life with the serendipitous syncing of apropos concepts, this year’s renewing of our new year has coincided with the renovating of our new home.
For me, the reflections of renewing and renovating are centered on the four foundational elements of our existence on this blue planet - Fire, Water, Earth and Air - that I am so grateful to have beautifully embodied and balanced in our new home.
Simultaneously, I am also reminded of the four holy cities in our forever HomeLand of Israel, that also correspond to these foundational four elements.
As this new year dawns, I am honoured to share the bridging of my personal Home and our collective HomeLand through the very existence of life itself, and I pray for the healing and serenity for all of Mankind, with the building & rebuilding of all that is dear to us.
L’chaim and Happy New Year.
Xx Riv @livwriv
FIRE
For the last recent decade, I lived in the City of Fire. A name I coined for the Capital City of the Holy Land - JeruSalem. I lived in the very center of the City of Fire - the heart & heat of the fire, the seat of passion, the melting pot of intensity, the whirlpool of chaos, and the ultimate light of the Promised Land.
As a hot-blooded, passionate and highly driven individual, I don’t always need more fire in my life - I assure you that there is enough internal fire to easily forego external fire. However, the element of fire is always familiar.
So, the rustic ranch vibe with a logwood fire was always a dream and to realise this dream with a fireplace in our home is a treat; a cozy, magical place where we gather in the halo of love.
Well it’s not quite as rustic as I imagined, with the burning logs, chopped firewood, and smoking chimney amidst foggy mountain air and lush rainforest pines, but it is a real gas fireplace all the same; and the cozy corner with our fire-pit bowl mounted on the wall, and the white sheepskin across the couch reminds me of a hunting ranch in Montana, well at least for a magical minute in my overactive imagination.
“To the English, to remove the fireplace from the home would be like removing the soul from the body.” (Hermann Muthesius)
In House Lessons, Bauermeister writes so beautifully “Of all the parts of a house, perhaps the hearth is the most symbolic. Its history goes back to the very beginning of shelter, which was created as a way to protect precious fire as much as the people who gathered around it…. In Latin, the word for hearth is focus, and even now, in our era of radiant flooring and central heat…a fireplace means home.”
She continues to describe how the hearth gathered families together around a central fire, and slowly with central heating, families began to scatter into separate rooms, where alas now in our modern era, “the glow that most of us are drawn to comes from small screens held in our hands.”
“And yet there is a part of us that still longs for that feeling of togetherness, and a hearth is the symbol of an earlier time when family members gathered around a fire that held a dangerous world at bay. Inside its warmth and light, we are safe. The ability to keep it burning gives us a feeling of competence. In the end, we are all Neanderthals, thrilled by the miracle of fire.”
The miracle of fire.
We had a House. We made a Home. We built a Hearth. We gave our Heart.
Another fire element in our home is the seamless indoor/outdoor light, particularly shining through the large western facing windows.
Daily bearing witness to -
sunrise, sunset;
moonrise, moonset;
planet-scapes;
skyscapes; and
nightly star tours.
Growing up, we had a room - a sunroom - on the western side of our Spanish Mission 1930s white house.
Today, we are lucky to have a sun house / a light house. Our entire house is built along the west.
My husband calls me a sunworshipper but the ability to see the early twilight of dawn through my east facing windows, and then to feel and see the suns’ rays as it moves along its wide arc and then shines through our west facing windows, is simply magical to witness and experience.
On days when I am lucky enough to pay attention, I will seek out those pockets of sunshine near each window upstairs along the corridor and make my way from South to North to watch the glorious, fiery sunset and the changing twilight of dusk in the big western sky with awe.
As the heavens darken, with renewed navigating wonder each evening, I see the celestial beings - the moon and the planets - appear, each on their own spherical arc rising from the east and setting in the west, as the sky changes colour in so many shades of blue, pink, red, black and gold….
And if I keep watching, and maybe even with the help of my trusty binoculars, I start to see the fiery stars appear, twinkling at their own disco party, in improv steps and formations….
Our seamless indoor/outdoor fixed and variable states of fire and light, shadow and reflection, add magic to our home when we silently stop to appreciate and be present in their glow.
WATER
The balancing element of water helps to cool, temper and tame the element of fire.
Water - our emotional flow, our feelings, our waves of ups and downs, the tides of highs and lows, our cooling and cleansing element; like the cooling element of the Holy City of Tiberias with her magnificent water views, overlooking the Lake Kinneret. I remember often escaping from my very hot, impassioned, intense City of Fire of JeruSalem to Tiberias to gaze upon her calm and cooling waters.
Our house is built from South to North alongside a swimming pool that can be seen through the west-facing large windows. In the words of the previous owners “we never used the pool, we only built it for art and design, so that we could gaze upon it from our living / dining areas…”
And, whilst I love to swim, to balance my internal heat, fire, and passion with the cooling element of water, this narrow, long, lap pool is a beautiful calming blue alongside the western front. Indeed, ‘all quiet on the western front’ has taken on new meaning in our new home.
At this juncture, a song from my early childhood at the age of three or four years old comes to mind. 'My heart is in the East (the rising), though I am here in the West (the setting).'
Here in the West, overhanging citrus trees, blend colours of orange and yellow into the shades of sunny blue. I am now reminded of my home for almost a decade in the Middle East in the cobblestone alleyways of the artists’ quarter of JeruSalem, where citrus orange and lemon trees wind around the cobblestone square and alleyway, adding bursts of colour to glistening snow in a white wintry JeruSalem of Gold.
For years, while living in the heart of the Capital, I yearned for some fresh, natural water. Today my home in the Southern Hemisphere beautifully bridges the landscapes and skyscapes of my former home, balancing the elements of fire and water, reminding me through the overhanging citrus, that all is forever mysteriously guided and connected, speaking to me across the borders of time and space. Transcending. Ascending. Returning east and rising in love.
EARTH
Hebron, the city of our Matriarchs and Patriarchs.
A city corresponding with the element of earth. Sometimes heavy, but always grounding and real.
Earth, my Capricorn side - practical, real, hardworking, productive, driven.
I was seven when we moved from the Railway tracks of Ripponlea to North Caulfield, on a street that was then coined ‘the start of the golden mile’.
I am 43 when we move back to that same street.
That same earth where my siblings and I walked, and ran, and learned to ride our bikes. Where we went door knocking to our neighbours, collecting for MS Readathon or Red Nose Day, or sharing traditional holiday gifts. Where we shared memories and meals with older Holocaust survivors and built lifelong friendships with families who became our friends, over braided bread and hot chicken soup at our Sabbath Table. We were the family of singing sisters, while (unbeknownst to us then, but revealed later in our adult years) we competed with the “Hebrew” speaking/shouting brothers who played footy on the long summer afternoons in the narrow road outside our homes.
It is truly mind-blowing to be back on that same earth. So many memories. Some heavy and some light. And all real. An integral part of our personal earth; our base foundations; our lifelong journey.
AIR
And finally, the element of Air. The intangible. The one that we can’t touch and quantify and yet when it’s airless, oh boy do I know and feel it so viscerally.
To breathe air, the very essence of life itself.
My Aquarius - air / water carrier - side revels in the ideas of the mind, and the wordsmith’s wordplay, so air is an element that I constantly seek.
Safed, my first Home for a full year in the Holy Land at the age of 18. The holy city of Air. The city of the dreamer and the philosopher; the creative and the maverick. The mystical city of ideas and words, waiting to be manifested and grounded.
The element of air is often combined with the element of wind, yet the erratic & messy wind element is so very unsettling to me.
Air with a gentle breeze is what I crave, so having windows and doors without fly screens is so frustrating and I have spent the last many weeks problem solving with many installers the various different door and window magnetic screen and retractable screen options for our home so that we can enjoy fire, water and earth, all combined with the fresh air element.
Just like our Home is a very slow work in progress, so too, our beings are constantly seeking the balance of these life affirming elements. And sometimes, very slow to adjust to the ever-changing multi-factors of our world. How much fire to balance how much water? How much earth to balance how much air?
For many months after we moved, we experienced some very extreme winds.
Winds that creaked through our home - shaking our tin roof; almost completely uprooting the roof antennae and pulling the roof fascia off; rocking the tall narrow palm tree from the neighbouring property and scattering large palm branches into our backyard that floated into our pool; bending the bamboo at extreme arched angles….
For many days and nights, I watched that bamboo bend, waiting for it to break… and yet in its most resilient and hardy way, it never did.
In Beth Kempton’s book Wabi Sabi - Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life - Kempton discusses how flexibility is strength, so be like the bamboo. “The bamboo is growing all the time, and is also sensitive to its dynamic environment. It’s firmly rooted but flexible. When the wind blows the bamboo doesn’t resist; it lets go and moves with it…
Similar to the bamboo, the buildings that survive in earthquake-prone or hurricane-prone countries, are those that can move with give and for-give when the quakes and winds begin.
Sudden change from an external force will naturally throw us off balance, but it is actually the rigidity that makes us vulnerable to considerable shock and ultimate breaking. If we are desperately trying to hang on we may be knocked flat, yet if we are more accepting and flexible, we may be blown about but not be completely knocked off balance, allowing us to recover sooner and more easily.
To bend but not break with the gales of force and strong winds of never-ending change; to lean in and pivot instead of staying stubborn to the control of a plan or pattern that no longer serves, is the ability to shift perspective and to take the element of harsh unsettling wind and transform it into the sweet calm air that we breathe.
Holding lightly but not holding tightly to any desired outcome or expectation allows us to pivot, adapt and adjust, and oh my, have we learned that in renovating a home there is so much of that dance. And how much more so in the overarching dance of life. When the steps don't seem to flow, we are often called upon to shift perspective and exercise loads of patience. Patience with the unknown, ever-changing rhythms, displaced moments, unsettling occurrences and interrupted cadences. Life as a human being is a constant dance in flexibility as we summon strength for the next bold step and the next brave move, without ever being guaranteed a desired outcome or sweet result.
The life of a Human Being is inherently - To Be and To Breathe.
REST
Building a new house is building a new plan.
Living a life is re-living and renewing in every moment.
Renovating a home is a lesson in how to pivot in life to create more flow and customise the best outcomes in every present moment, especially as human beings operating in a world of so many comings and goings.
As 2024 sets, and 2025 rises, rest is crucial, and once again our house is here to teach us this lesson, a House Lesson in Rest.
Our automated technology was set up for our home automation systems and subsequently tried and tested over many weeks. Some aspects were so tedious and other aspects so trippy (and I don't mean the trippy of when a fuse trips), with the creative problem-solving delights that enliven me completely.
I am reminded of rest, patience and slowing down, taking breaks to avoid “haste makes waste” from one such automation set up.
We had coded a set of scenarios with specific on/off commands. Alas the system failed and despite all of the correct coding, our scenario did not automatically activate as expected.
Upon review, our automation technician realised that he had forgotten to set up delay codes in between each on/off command. The system was overloaded and overwhelmed with commands without any breaks at all and therefore could not function. Once we coded the requisite delays in between the commands, the system was once again able to function appropriately.
If technological systems fail under overload, how much more so will human systems fail from work or life overload, if we do not ensure as a matter of better practice to employ regular rest times and timely breaks to re-energise and reset. A Human Being must have moments to stop and be before it can then be Human Doing who can act and do.
So, dearest reader, on that restful note I leave you with the many Rivers of musings to ponder on Riv’s Rivers @livwriv as we close the year of 2024 and flow into this new chapter.
May 2025 bring the beautiful balance of life’s foundational elements of Fire, Water, Earth & Air. May we be able to channel, pivot, adapt, adjust and let go with grace.
May we find pockets of sunshine, micro joys, lighthearted moments and starry nights to sustain us throughout.
And may our personal Homes and collective HomeLands always be safe & secure spaces that are inviting with serenity and warmth for all who pass over their thresholds, and cross into their borders.
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