relaxation 5 - home
by Bill Schaeffer
copyright(c) 2014
William Schaeffer
*****
Note: this is NOT music in any traditional sense. More like windchimes for your computer. Play this in the background and then get up and walk around your apartment. Clean something up, or put something away, that you have been meaning to get to.
Now, do something else that needs to be done. Don't worry about the sound, but just leave it play. Stop sitting at the computer. Get up and move to a different location.
Maybe you need to just think about how to plan your day for a few minutes. Let the day flow. Break the circular agitation and get some slow positive movement into your day.
*****
It is interesting to note that the word "home" contains the word "om." This word has been used as a "Mantra" in yoga traditions for hundreds of years. The word is repeated as a way of centering the mind and quieting the internal dialog.
How coincidental then, that the word "om" is contained within the English word "home" which is literally the center of our life and our family.
*****
In the movie "The Wizard of Oz" Dorothy is told by Glenda the Good Witch to:
click her heels three times and repeat to herself, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home..."
***
"Home is where the heart lies." -- Anon
****
Vesta is the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Vesta's spirit is symbolized by the sacred fire that burned at her hearth and temples.
The importance of Vesta to Roman religion is indicated by the prominence of her priests, the Vestal Virgins, and the fact that her cult had Rome's only college of full-time priests.
*****
A pit-house is a primitive dwelling partially dug into the ground and roofed over.Besides providing shelter, these structures may also be used to store food and for cultural activities.
In archaeology, pit-houses are found in numerous cultures around the world. These include:the ancestral Pueblo, the ancient Fremont and Mogollon cultures, the Cherokee, Anglo Saxons in Europe; and the Jōmon people in Japan. Anglo Saxon pit-houses may have also represented buildings for other functions than just dwellings.
*****
In January 2012, over 630,000 people in the USA were homeless according to US department of Housing and Urban Development.
*****
However, the number of people who experience a short period of homelessness is estimated to be up to 3 million people.
****
According to Amnesty International US, there are FIVE TIMES as many vacant homes in the USA as there are homeless people.
******
Over 62,000 of those homeless were Veterans
*****
An estimated 100 million people worldwide were homeless in 2005.
****
from wikipedia:
After the breakup of the USSR the problem of homelessness sharpened dramatically, partially because of the legal vacuum of the early 1990s with some laws contradicting each other and partially because of a high rate of frauds in the realty market. In 1991 articles 198 and 209 of Russian criminal code which instituted criminal penalty for not having permanent residence were abolished. Because most flats had been privatized and many people sold their last shelter without successfully buying another, there was a sharp increase of homeless. Renting apartments from a private owner became widespread (which usually only gives temporary registration and apartment owner could evict the leaser after the contract is over, or if the money was not paid). In Moscow, the first overnight shelter for homeless was opened in 1992. In the late 1990s certain amendments in law were implemented to reduce the rise in homelessness, such as prohibition of selling last flat with registered children.
Nevertheless, the state is still obliged to give permanent shelter for free to anybody who needs better living conditions or has no permanent registration, because the right to shelter is still included in the constitution. This may take many years, though. Nobody still has the right to strip a person of permanent residency without their will, even the owner of the apartment. This creates problems for banks because mortgage loans became increasingly popular. Banks are obliged to provide a new, cheaper flat for a person instead of the old one if the person fails to repay the loan, or wait until all people who live in the flat are dead.
*****
