Sunlight on red brick. A woman in an apron leads a little girl out of a doorway into the courtyard. Through a dark archway on the left, a long corridor opens onto the street, where another woman stands with her back to us, looking out.
Above that archway, set into the wall, there's a stone tablet with an inscription.
Pieter de Hooch, The Courtyard of a House in Delft, 1658. The National Gallery, London
A stone from a monastery
The tablet is real. It came from the gateway of a former monastery in Delft, the cloister of Saint Jerome, and was reused in a house wall. Its verse invites the passer-by to come into the valley of Saint Jerome to find patience and meekness, "for we must first descend if we wish to be raised".
De Hooch painted it carefully, every letter. In a picture of ordinary household life, it sits there like a quiet thought.
The painter of doorways
Pieter de Hooch loved thresholds: doors left open, corridors leading to other rooms, courtyards that open onto streets. His paintings almost always let you see through, from one space into the next, from shadow into light.
They're scenes of moving from one moment to another, which is what we do all day without noticing.
A threshold meditation
We cross dozens of thresholds a day: the front door, the office door, the kitchen. Each one is a chance to arrive.
- Choose one doorway you use every day.
- The next time you reach it, pause with one hand on the frame.
- Take a breath and notice where you're coming from: what you're carrying, how you feel.
- Take another breath and notice where you're going. What does this next space ask of you?
- Step through slowly, as if into one of de Hooch's courtyards, and let the light change.
To bring that feeling home, try taking a museum walk in your own home or making a meditation corner in a small apartment.
A small threshold
The First Letter is a short sensory meditation on receiving a letter, with a sample of our magazine "(meditating) On Art". It's free, and it's a lovely threshold into slower days.
Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi