The heart of home: "Select a place that is cool, clean, and quiet."

Eknath Easwaran, Passage Meditation, Nilgiri Press

Where I grew up in a little town near Dallas, Texas, Mamie Eisenhower and husband, President Ike, modeled a mature and gracious couple for families, just as they represented dedication to families across the nation.

"American women loved her [Mamie] because they identified with her," according to her biography on the Dwight D. Eisenhower website (www.dwightdeisenhower.com). Women, like my mother, appreciated how Mamie could work many hours every day, like any dedicated man in public service. My mom, like Mamie, ran a big operation raising 3 stair-step kids, managing a home on a meager budget, and still looking pretty when my dad returned from work.

Heroic effort it all took.

One day when I might have been 5 or 6 years of age, I watched my mom hang curtains in the living room. She measured the curtain rod, drilled holes to secure the rod, and hung new flowery print panels that she spent the prior week sewing on a borrowed Singer sewing machine.

I felt the living room change right before my eyes. Something peaceful had occurred--something that I call 'beauty.' I knew that I was in the family home, but the family home became something more. Knowing that I was watching beauty unfold, I remarked: "Mama, I think that you can do anything." She was three steps up a ladder at the time.

Best I recall, mom finished the task and stepped down. She replied, "I think that I can, too. Thank you for saying that." Scrappy kid that I was, I probably went back to throwing Lego's at my younger brother. But the memory painted a mark in a place inside my mind's home, which is "...cool, clean, and quiet."

That is the place, in spirit, where Easwaran recommends one go to repeat an inspirational passage such as the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. A child recalls a moment of beauty, and locates similar places where beauty is stretched out like handmade curtains to hang his meditations. Children of 5 or 95 years in age need a place at home where they can dive deep for treasures of the heart.

Where is that place inside your home? Try locating it, if you would, and return every morning to repeat the passage: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace...".

I still wonder how mom created "...a place that is cool, clean, and quiet." My wonder twinkles in my eyes (I am the guy with the hat).