Welcome, Traveler

"There's no prayer like desire."  - Tom Waits

I’ve finally gone ahead and procured a little spot here in the online universe.  I’ve got the keys and the ink’s dried on the deed.  I’ve given it a coat of paint and hung the sign - The Ruminarium. I’m not entirely sure what the character of this place will be, but I have some inklings.  For now, I see it as a warm chapel-turned-tavern, a bit off the beaten path where there’s always a bite of something good on the stove and generous libations for any who need some company and a place to stop a while. We’ll try to chase some of the road-weariness from your bones. 

One thing I know that is entirely and equally true of every church, temple, and ring of standing stones, every bar and coffee house, every kitchen, fireside, and lovers’ bed:  stories inhabit all the corners and the rafters, all the glasses, the windowsills, sink edges and pillowcases; all the ashes and darkened earth, the plates, the spoons, and the candlesticks; the vestments and whiskey bottles, every mark in the furniture, each chip in the bowls.  Those stories make each place most wholly what it is. The sacred, profane, tragic, comedic, ridiculous, transcendent, beautiful, and broken exist the same in all of them.  Without the stories there is nothing much to hold onto and certainly no compelling reason to stay or return.  They are a living fabric made of breath and belief, courage, hope, love and grief, wisdom and foolishness, searching and longing, laughter, revelation, meandering tangents, unexpected grace, redemption, and the occasional flash of magic and miracle, that become the actual, particular soul of a place, a person, a relationship, a family, a life. 

And so I believe that it most likely will be something like this, in time, here too.  But for now, this place is unlived in and we have yet to speak its name into itself.   This is the beginning, where desire is the only first prayer for bringing anything into being.  It’s time – and long overdue.  Come in, visit often.  You’re always welcome.  Indeed, the soul of this place won’t quite be full without you.