My bed, a modest double, nothing kingly or queenly, has become more than a haven or refuge. It’s a lover. At my most exhausted moments I sense it reaching toward me like the vibrations of the universe, for the Tai Chi teacher says the universe is a great system of vibrations we draw to us by our feelings: fear draws fear, love draws love. I almost hear the bed whispering to me to come, the way you might feel a lover longing for you miles away, and I come readily, falling onto the waiting mattress, firm but yielding as an accomplished lover, the strong coils beneath the stuffing like reliable bones beneath the flesh. I lie down as eagerly as did the princess worn out from her wanderings, except under this mattress is no irritating pea [or musterdseed for that matter]. No, the bed is a perfect and perfectly welcoming lover. The pillow sinks benignly under the weight of my head and rises mildly around my hair. I pull the sheet over me to be utterly surrounded, voluptuously embraced. It folds coolly around my legs as a lover’s skin may be cool at first touch, but it quickly warms up from my body’s heat, creating a tube of warmth. As the bed presses gently along the length of me, I let go. Every cell yields to the embrace which of late I find satisfying like no other. Totally understanding, the bed accepts that I have nothing to offer but warmth, which I have in abundance. I need not respond or embrace in return. The bed seeks nothing for itself - it’s pleasure is to wrap me in pleasure.

I have decided to take you along with me into this journey of finding the Sacred in our everyday lives. I am still learning about how the inanimate in our lives effect us and what our relationship to these things are or should be. We so often take our ‘objects’ for granted whether it is the glass from which you drink, the light that brightens your room, the deodorant that keeps you from smelling, the brush, the watch, the radio, the television and yes of course the sensuous bed. We interact with these things everyday and yet we do not appreciate them. Having time to stop and smell the roses does not mean just that. It means having time to notice the importance of every little thing that makes your life possible and comfortable. Certain things, like dentist tools make us distinctly uncomfortable but in that too there is function and purpose to our lives. So what I’m trying to say is stop and appreciate the design of the buildings in your street, admire the steam rising from your bath or cup of coffee, notice that you are living in a world not isolated but completely interconnected.