When my son was very small, maybe three years old , he had a tough time falling asleep. He was afraid of ghosts and monsters and for some reason that I can not explain... hobos. I made up a story to give him comfort. I told him that in 1960, when our house was being built, the mason who laid the bricks was so much more then just a bricklayer. The man was a shaman, a priest, a holy man. I told my son that he didn't just mindlessly lay the blocks in mortar. I said that with each brick he placed he uttered a prayer, an incantation. He said, “ May no evil pass or dwell within these walls.”
This week I have been busy working on my front entrance. I ripped out the old rotting oak threshold and cast a replacement in concrete. I'm going to replace the door with a modern unit, fitted with a leaded glass window.
After I pushed and bumped the heavy, new threshold into place, I spoke the words, “ May no evil pass or dwell within these walls”.
