Where is your Sanctuary?

The other day, I had a 30 minute break between meetings at my synagogue so I decided to walk around.  I noticed that nobody was in the main sanctuary so I figured it was as good a place as any to relax for a few minutes.  So I sat there by myself for 15 minutes.  No prayer book, no Rabbi, no iPhone, no sound.  Just me.

When moments like this happen, I often am more intrigued by the beauty of the moment rather than what am I thinking about.  It's not often that all you can hear is the sound of your own heart beat but I found myself truly enjoying the moment.  That's not to say that I didn't have thoughts about my life, my family, my work, etc but what I really enjoyed was that this moment in an empty sanctuary happened to occur on an otherwise normal day.

As I was writing this blog, I thought of a painting by one of our family's favorites artists, Tomas Sanchez.  Many of his paintings, like the one above, include a beautiful landscape with a person meditating alone.  To see more of his paintings, go to http://smashingpicture.com/beautiful-paintings-by-tomas-sanchez/.  When I see his paintings, I often think about that person and more specifically, what is he thinking about?  No matter what he is thinking about, I am pretty confident that he is definitely appreciating the moment of peace like I did in my sanctuary.

Which brings me to the question of the day -- WHERE IS YOUR SANCTUARY?

Do you have moments like this?  Are they planned or do they just happen?  Either way, my advice would be to find those moments and cherish them.  They can be on a jog, driving to work or just a few minutes before bed.  There is another Tomas Sanchez painting (shown on right) where there are two people sharing this moment so why not try and find someone to share your sanctuary with you.  It doesn't really matter where this moment happens, how long or what you think about.  In our crazy busy noisy world, these sanctuaries do exist . . . if you take the time to find them.

The TO LIVE AS IF blog is all about sharing our life experiences to enhance others so please comment below about where your sanctuary is.  It can be anonymous but maybe your comment can help somebody else.  Thank you for sharing.