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I'd like to share with you a space for meditation that's all-inclusive. Have you ever been a
place in your life where you really wanted or needed a place to get away, just to get
away from it all? A place of solitude and tranquility. A place to meditate, just to
be alone with your thoughts. This is the House of Prayer. It was designed specifically to
meet these needs for people of all races, all genders, of all *** preferences, for
all religions of the world. It's to be all-inclusive. A place for everyone. Complete silence is
observed in the House of Prayer. When you come into this space, this is where you turn
off your cellphone. If you need to say something to someone, you do it as briefly as possible.
And you take off your shoes, and then you can enter into the mediation space. And it's
designed to help you focus on a central point. The light quality in there is really quite
beautiful. Natural light is important. There are opportunities to sit in chairs. You can
sit on a pillow. You can actually lie down. And so you simply go in, take your seat, mediate
as much as you like, and then quietly leave. That space then leads into a garden space
if you want to sit out and commune with nature. One of the most important things to remember
if you're trying to find a meditation space is you want area where you're not going to
be distracted. You wanna make sure that you're removed from the world, so to speak. I think
it's good to experiment with different areas of your home to see which one feels right
to you. Because you wanna be completely comfortable and be able to focus on the meditation to
get the most out of the exercise. My friend Susan Sims Smith, a lifetime meditator, had
the inspiration for this place. I saw a photograph of a building that had some similar architecture
and some similar uses, in a magazine 12 years ago. And I said to my husband, "If we could
have a building like that in Little Rock, people could meditate just because the architecture
of the room will help somebody move into silence." The way the building is used is just for silence.
And people from all the world religions, and from every walk of life, and from no religion,
come out here just to pray, just to meditate, just to be quiet. The ruby color that is in
there is the color of God's universal love. The amber color of the walls, the walls are
a gorgeous birch wood, and that amber color is a reminder of the feminine side of God
that is holding all of us. So the colors are working with us whether we understand them
or not. Right now, we have 90 to 140 visitors a month. The neat thing that is changing right
now is more and more faith groups are coming. We have these great little electronic key
fobs that can be applied for and obtained through the office of the House of Prayer,
and they work on a 24/7 schedule. So you can use your key fob to get into the building
for prayer and meditation or for reading in our reading room any time during the day or
night. And this is just a service that we like to provide to the public, the people
of Central Arkansas. There's no fee for it. We're not going to take your information and
sell it to anybody. We want you to come in here and use the building and to find some
rest and renewal in silent prayer and meditation. That being said, we're supported by volunteers,
and we're supported by contributions from people in this area as well as people who've
come in from all around the United States and all around the world who've made it a
point to visit this space and check out this really unique, remarkable place here in Little
Rock. That's maybe the only place that's specifically designated for silent prayer and meditation.