By Sally Z. Hare, Board Chair Emerita

I’ve never agreed with the so-called experts who tell us that the bedroom is only for sleeping. They even go so far as to admonish that, if we use the bedroom for other things, we’ll have difficulty sleeping.

Some sleep experts insist that the key to maximizing the efficiency for sleep is what you associate your room with – and they recommend one or two purposes only: sleep and maybe romance. These so-called experts insist that anything else we do in the bedroom serves no other purpose than to distract us from sleep.

I don’t agree.

I’ve never agreed.

My bedroom has always been my nest, my place of comfort and reflection and renewal. Some days it is my reading nook; some days it is my office; some days it is my entertainment center and/or the spot for eating some delightful treat. On all days it is my safe haven with flowers in every season and birdfeeders in the windows and favorite books at the bedside. It is the room that reflects the Beauty I love.

In these days of staying at home in order to be safe in the pandemic, the bedroom has become my living room of choice. And it has taught me a lot about creating space by reminding me that the bedroom doesn’t change, but my intention for being there shapes my experience and allows me to be present in different ways.

That knowing serves me well as I spend more and more of my days in Zoom rooms and other online spaces. Now when I sit down at the computer, I bring a different intention when I enter a Zoom room for a Kirkridge Circle of Trust® mini-retreat than when I go online for a board meeting. And I am very aware that the keyboard at which I sit to respond to emails is a VERY different place than the one that takes me into a retreat space or even a class.

Now I bring myself to the computer with a different sense of presence. Since I am no longer going to a different space for my meeting or gathering, I go inward for my attention and intention before I sit at the computer. That may mean getting up from checking emails and going out into the garden to cut a gardenia or listen to the birds. It often means adding, with delight and intention, a favorite jacket or wrap or add a scarf or a hat or earrings – something that says to me physically that I am moving into a different space.

I am going into a shared space. I am going to into this space with other human beings. I want to co-create this space so that it, too, reflects the Beauty I love. I hope you’ll join me. Check out what’s coming up in the Kirkridge Zoom room:

And look for me; I’ll be the one in the hat or the scarf!