Another way of talking about a refuge, as a  place from where we feel welcomed, and can draw comfort. This reflection nicely conveys the sense of care and home: a safe refuge within which supports us at every moment. It goes well with the weather that was there early this morning, as the incredibly mild autumn finally begins to get cold and the first frost appears. Our refuge is within: we can drop in at any time, and find what we truly value.  It is nice to have a warm place to go to.

Let me describe my grateful center to you. I was seven years old, and my parents were trying to move to the West Coast. Our relative poverty, however, caught up with us, and we were forced to winter in the cabin of an uncle in the Rocky Mountains. The time was difficult for my parents, I am sure, but for me it was glory . . . my most vivid memory is of the fireplace. (I had never been around a fireplace before, all of our heat heretofore having come from the coal furnace in our Nebraska home.) Every night I would pull out the bed that hid in the couch by day and climb under the heavy quilts, my head less than ten feet away from the crackling warmth. Night after night I would fall asleep, watching this strange yellow blaze that warmed us all. I was in my grateful center.

Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home