Houses Have Feelings Too

My son recently moved to a new house - not new in the sense of just being built but a house new to him and his fiance.

After they had moved all of their furniture and belongings inside and straightened things out a little I sat in their living room and immediately felt comfortable. I thought, "This is a good house filled with happiness."

I remember reading Tennyson when he wrote:

"Woods have tongues
As walls have ears."
That's sort of true. Houses and buildings somehow absorb attitudes and perhaps temperaments of the people who have lived there previously. If the last tenants were full of family love this permeates the atmosphere. The opposite is true as well. If there has been hate and ill feeling these vibrations linger and can be felt by the new owners.

All buildings have a mood. I love visiting churches and places of worship wherever I travel in the world - even though I don't belong to any organised religion. Most churches give an instant feeling of peace and tranquility.

Other buildings give off different vibes. Obvious ones are places such as airports, where everything seems to be hustle, bustle and confusion. A doctors surgery may give off anxiety, restaurants a sense of expectations and so on.

Some people say they see ghosts in their houses or in other buildings who repeat the same thing. These apparitions walk down the same stairs, in the same way or across a room in a certain direction over and over again. Some strong emotion has imprinted this into the house.

It's interesting (or maybe worrying!) to consider what the walls of our own houses are taking in as they observe our moods, tone of our voices, thoughts and so on.

Shelly said, "One wandering thought pollutes the day." As well as polluting our minds perhaps these thoughts also pollute our living areas.

Wonder how people feel when they walk into our homes?

Photos: Rye Church Mike Perry 2010