If I had known about the field of environmental psychology back in high school, my whole life may have turned out very differently. The book House Thinking by Winifred Gallagher introduced me to the idea of environmental psychology, a discipline which focuses on the relationship between humans and our surroundings. House Thinking addresses an inherent area of fascination for me: space. Not "space- the final frontier", but space as an important representation of the human psyche and as part of the human experience.
Space has always been important to me. From a few moments alone, locked in the bathroom to gain some respite from a parental confrontation, to carving out some personal space in a shared apartment, the proverbial "room of one's own" has always provided me with a feeling of comfort and creativity.
Recently I faced a space-related challenge. With my work space placed in the shared "game space", writing creatively (or doing anything productive at all, really) proved challenging. All space in the apartment was shared space, and I need to emulate the archetypal Hermit in order to really dig down and pull out something that I can transmute into compelling story.
After some contemplation and discussion with my fiance, we moved my desk into a spacious corner of the bedroom. Suddenly, the space began to transform, and with it my own feelings. The addition of a matching cabinet provided and extra arm to the desk, making the desk into an "L" shape, and on this arm I set up my muse shrine.
The muse shrine contains a nymph statue that belonged to my grandmother, a ceramic bowl made my best friend in Oregon, an etched carafe that belonged to my mother, and various other bits and bobs that have struck my fancy over the years. It also hosts a few statuettes of powerful ladies of myth and faith-- Bast, Kwan Yin, and Kali.
The current configuration sends a powerful and uplifting message to me. It tells me that my work space and my sacred space are not separate. It reaffirms that my work is important (to me) and creative, spiritual and whimsical at the same time. (One can see the whimsy in the little silver plaque reading "Follow your dreams" which hangs from the desk lamp next to my computer.)
Most importantly, it establishes a personal sanctuary to which I can retreat for introspection and the creative process. Though the space is shared, my fiance rarely spends time outside of sleep in the bedroom, so it's a wonderful compromise. What did he get out of it? He got an office of his own with a delightful reading nook. As he said to me this morning, "There are worse things than sharing my office with cats and books."
My fiance is pretty wise, don't you think?
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