A wonderful friend from Asheville, Maureen McDonnell, has just started a new business doing that which she calls “fluffing.” She comes into a a home that invites her for the purpose of utilizing her gift of amazing vision and helps rearrange furniture and the stuff in the environment. She spent the last 36 or so hours here on a visit. I asked her thoughts, and with the fortification of a little wine and a lot of enthusiasm it was as if Merlin the magician had whisked through the house with his magic wand, or maybe one of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty went bippety boppety boo. We disassembled most of every arrangement of furniture and stuff in the major living area of my house and reassembled it according to her felt sense, her eye and intuitions about beauty, creating flow, opening blockages. She pulled art I have collected from all over the world, pieces I had allowed to fade into the woodwork, and placed them in ways that feature them, suddenly they seem to be alive and shining.

I think often about Buckminster Fuller’s explanation regarding the potential of the geodesic dome as a living space. He said that as humans we cannot think correctly in square spaces, as this shape does not exist in nature. He believed our thoughts will move in harmony with nature only when we live in spaces that reflect shapes that exist in the natural world. I reflect upon and puzzle over this often.

The change in the geometries and flows in my own household feel like magic. Even my little dog, who had stopped making any noticeable sounds since he turned deaf, has started miraculously barking again! Magic. Everything feels different. The impact of living spaces upon all of our internal operations may be a mystery we have yet to explore with more awareness and attention. Feng Shui certainly offers the science of it, but there is more to be said, more experimentation to be made, more stories to be told. I feel it.