Every morning she awoke in her tapestried room and found Martha kneeling upon the hearth building her fireFrances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)
"I have a dream," he said slowly. "I persist in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true. I dream of a home with a hearth--fire in it, a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends -- and you!" Lucy Maude Montgomery (Anne of the Island)
Turning towards the hearth, where the two logs had fallen apart, and sent forth only a red uncertain glimmer, he seated himself on his fireside chair, and was stooping to push his logs together, when, to his blurred vision, it seemed as if there were gold on the floor in front of the hearth. George Eliot (Silas Marner)
Looking in at the door, after knocking in vain, I saw her sitting on the hearth in a ragged chair, close before, and lost in the contemplation of, the ashy fire. Charles Dickens (Great Expectations)
Writers, particularly in classic literature, made use of the idea of a hearth in describing a special spot within a house. In its literal sense it is the area inside of or in front of a fireplace. But the use of the word expresses so much more than a physical space or place. It is used to denote a feeling of warmth, comfort and security; the emotional centre of the home.
It is where friends gathered to talk, where quilts were lovingly sewn, where dreams were dreamed all while the fire crackled and the room was wrapped in warmth. It is the spot from which the best, toughest and most important things can happen.
Where's the centre of our homes today? Fireplaces are plentiful, practical and beautiful, but are they the place we gather? Sit quietly? Invite others?
From a design perspective, fireplaces often are made to be the focal point of a room. Their size, function and ambiance draw us in and give the room a sense of warmth and comfort. But is it where we spend our time? Is it where people would find us?
When it comes to wish lists in real estate the need for large kitchen/dining areas is often mentioned. The desire is to have space where families can gather and enjoy time together. Yet if surveys are to be believed, less and less food is being prepared in our homes, and less and less families are sitting down eating meals together.
So where is our hearth today? Is it in front of our TVs? At our computers? Staring into our smartphones? At our desks? Running the over burdened schedules in our day planners? Unfortunately this may be entirely all too true. We tell ourselves we can multitask; we can juggle; we can keep going; keep pushing; with sometimes little thought to the consequences. Our sleep suffers. Our relationships suffer. Our creativity suffers. Our health suffers.
We need to get back to the hearth. Back to a place where we can sit, think, shut out the noise, enjoy solitude or revel in meaningful conversation.
We need to get back to the hearth. It may not look the way a hearth once did and it may not be physically located in front of a fireplace. It doesn't matter. The important thing is to find one--to find a hearth--one that matters to us. Perhaps it can be in the comfort of an easy chair with a favourite blanket drawn round us. Perhaps it is in a lawn chair on the deck enjoying the gentle rustling of the leaves. Perhaps it will be at the kitchen table talking with the people that matter most. It's about finding that place that turns the bricks and mortar from a house---to a home.
When our oldest daughter was away at school we undertook some renovations in our house. When she returned bathrooms had been redesigned, walls were different colours, and every cupboard in the kitchen had been shifted and most items relocated. I asked her one day if it was strange to return and see these physical changes to the place she had grown up. She said simply, "It doesn't matter about the house, because my home is still the same."
There are many modern conveniences I am grateful for and I have never expressed a desire to have lived in a different time period than today, but I must admit I think the loss of the hearth has cost us all something. Because it's not an old-fashioned design concept or a quaint reference in literature. The hearth is the heartbeat of the home. Let's make sure it is beating vibrantly. That's my outlook.
