Designing Hearts

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The topic of class the following week was the benefactors—or helpful people—and travel square of the bagua. This square was located in the lower right-hand corner of the bagua, to the right of the career square. Meredith was the student most interested in improving this area of her home. Her goal was to build up her catering business, but she also wanted to fulfill a lifelong dream of traveling to Italy. In fact, the benefactors and travel area of the home was the bagua square that Jill was most confident could create immediate change. Most people were more interested in career, prosperity, love, or health, but helpful people were essential to all of the squares.

  “Tonight we’re going to talk about all the helpful people in our lives: the produce manager who goes out of his way to find just the right eggplant for your eggplant parmesan, or in my case, the thoughtful employee at the dry cleaner who called to remind me that she still had my favorite blue party dress, which she could have sold by now.” Jill grimaced. “It’s the shop owner who gives you a deal on something you really want or the neighbor who steps in to pick up your child at daycare when you’re running late after work. Some of us have trouble asking for help because we think we can handle everything ourselves. But we all know that isn’t true.”

  Meredith spoke up. “Jill, you’re one of my helpful people. Your referrals have really given a huge boost to my business, and I already know I’ll be busy over the holiday season.”

  “Keep cooking the way you did for my Halloween party, and you’ll have more business than you can handle.”

  Meredith blushed becomingly before saying, “In fact, ever since I first learned there was such a thing as a benefactors and travel area, I’ve been more conscious of the different ways I’m being helped. My son is always willing to schlep heavy things to and from places where I cater events. My sister has been helping me cook when I need an extra hand, and my other sister helped me get a small business loan to expand.”

  “Congratulations! We knew you had it in you to take that leap of faith.”

  With the class offering atta-girls for Meredith, Jill waited for them to quiet down. “Remember that feng shui is about identifying what you want—setting forth the intention. For example, you might say, ‘I need help finding a new accountant.’ That request or thought brings about more thoughts and the activity that eventually produces the desired outcome. And don’t forget to express gratitude for the results.”

  On break that evening, Shelly approached Jill in the hallway. “So, I thought about what you said about enhancing the benefactors and travel area of my house, in addition to creativity and children,” she said.

  “It’s a good idea, because all the areas work together. The chi flows throughout the house. Remember that the creativity and children area is just one square away from benefactors and travel.” Jill paused. “You might ask for someone, a different medical professional perhaps, who could help you figure out the cause of the infertility.”

  Shelly’s face appeared sullen. “Joe said he’s done trying to get me pregnant. He refuses to touch me now. He just says, ‘Let it go. It’s God’s will that we don’t have children.’ I took matters into my own hands.” There was an angry glint in her eyes.

  “Has he been tested yet to see if perhaps the problem is something correctable on his end?” Jill asked as tactfully as possible.

  “No, he refuses to see a specialist. It really bothers me that every time we’re around his family and they want to know how we’re coming along with baby-making, he says, ‘No, Shelly isn’t pregnant yet.’ He makes it sound as if he has nothing to do with it! Last night, he said he’s tired of trying—not that we ever do it that much, anyway.”

  Jill tried not to smile and failed. She cleared her throat. “Actually, that’s not an unusual reaction to many years of trying to conceive.”

  “Sometimes I wonder if he’s, you know, even interested in sex.” Shelly’s cheeks colored. “He seems to find it distasteful. Even on our honeymoon, he found reasons to avoid making love.”

  “Perhaps it’s time for couples counseling. Would that help?”

  “No.” Shelly’s voice was flat. “I have a problem, and I’m taking care of it in my own way.”

  Something about the way her eyes narrowed made Jill wonder what Shelly had in mind. She had given Shelly the card for a counseling center, as well as a brochure on the many faces of abuse, thinking Shelly might understand better what a toll Joe’s constant badgering, blame, and put-downs were having on her. She still wondered if that was all that was going on. She hoped that Shelly might decide she was ready to get counseling on her own. It was also possible that she was planning to leave Joe.

  When break was over, Jill began the second half of the lecture. “I’m often surprised by how quickly I get help when I need or want something. When I make a request, I try to imagine how I’ll feel when my need is fulfilled: relief or excitement, perhaps. Positive emotion really stokes an intent or desire. In this area of the bagua, you also want to have a particular location to hold your special requests. I keep a small silver-colored box where I put my requests for help, but I try to keep the number of requests to not more than three. Otherwise, thoughts and intentions can become too scattered.”

  “Would a gray cash box work?” Joni raised her pen in the air. “I need something I can lock. I don’t want anyone else to see my intentions.”

  “Yes, that’s a good point. Metal is an important element in this area of the home, anyway, but if you don’t have a silver or gray steel box, it’s perfectly fine to wrap a little box in aluminum foil and tuck it away in that area somewhere. Put your specific, most urgent requests into the box and watch how fast the answers come.”

  She turned on her laptop and showed the class a recent example of a room she designed to enhance the benefactors and travel area. “In this home, the owner loves anything having to do with France. On this wall, we see black-and-white prints of famous French landmarks. He needed a water element, and thankfully I was able to talk him out of a massive water sculpture. He selected a print of Monet water lilies instead. It’s important to include symbols of whatever you’re trying to enhance in your life. If you want to take a dream trip, you could put a big travel poster on the wall of wherever it is you want to go.”

  “Shouldn’t travel be part of the career area?” Kristen looked puzzled. “Or the prosperity area, since you need money to travel?”

  “You and I think the same way, Kristen. I figure that it’s good to cover all the bases, so if you want to travel more for your job, it would be helpful to enhance the career area to include a travel symbol, too. And yes, if you need money to travel, by all means include a travel intention in the prosperity corner. Again, remember that each area is enhanced by the strength of every other area. So whatever it is we desire, there is always someone available to help point the way or lend a hand.”

  As the class ended, Jill called out, “Next week, we’ll be focusing on romance. I saved the best for last.”

  Kristen rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure there are enough helpful people in the world to fix that area of my life.”

  Jill parked her car in the driveway of Meredith’s split-level home in a middle-class neighborhood of Norwalk, not far from where Finn and Missy lived. A FOR SALE sign in front of Meredith’s house now had a ‘Price Reduced’ sticker plastered across the top in bright red. Jill knew that Meredith was becoming increasingly agitated that the house hadn’t sold after two months on the market, and that she was anxious to buy a bigger place to accommodate her growing business.

  Meredith answered the door wearing a tomato-stained apron. Her long dark curls were contained in a matching hairnet. The house smelled deliciously of onions, garlic, and fresh herbs, and there was a tray of freshly baked Italian cookies on the dining room table. Jill sniffed the air appreciatively, wishing she hadn’t skipped lunch as her stomach growled in protest.

  “My biggest issue in arranging house showings is that I can
’t leave at a moment’s notice. I work here,” Meredith explained. “Realtors aren’t happy when they call with a potential client and I have a dish in the oven that I can’t leave unattended.”

  “Since your primary interest in feng shui is the benefactors and travel area, I put together a folder of ideas for you,” Jill told her, “including some potential solutions for your real estate woes.”

  “My realtor brought me a statue of Saint Joseph that she planted head down in the front yard,” Meredith told Jill as she led her back to the kitchen. “I’m afraid St. Joe is going to have his work cut out for him. Not only can’t I leave my house for a showing if I’m preparing for a catering job, I also can’t keep the kitchen clean enough—you know, counters cleared and no cooking odors. This is a working kitchen, for heaven’s sake!”

  “There are some excellent ways to put forth the intention for a real estate sale that are more about envisioning the kind of person who would love your house and want to buy it,” Jill said. “Your kitchen is spacious, and you’ve got top-of-the-line appliances and lots of counter space. It’s the kind of kitchen that someone who loves to cook would definitely appreciate.”

  “That’s what I think, too.” Meredith went back to the stove, where a pot of red sauce was simmering. “But if no one ever sees the kitchen—”

  “I have an idea,” Jill interrupted. “Why don’t you arrange an open house to specifically highlight the kitchen while providing appetizers for those who come to the showing? You’d need to know how many were expected so you’d have enough food, but if you do it by appointment only, that allows your realtor to market the open house ahead of time to other brokers and agents. The idea is to focus on those clients who are looking for a nicer, more professional kitchen. That way, the people who come for the open house won’t mind if you’re here because there will be wonderful food in the kitchen especially prepared for them. You could even do short cooking demonstrations. Potential buyers will be entertained, enjoy great food, and have a chance to envision themselves in this space, making their own favorite meals.”

  “Jill, that’s a great idea!” Meredith’s eyes lit up. “My realtor had a brokers’ open house when the house first went on the market, but she insisted on using her company’s own caterer. She also didn’t want me here because then the agents’ comments wouldn’t be honest. If the owner is at home, agents and buyers won’t say what they really think.”

  “You’re the client. If you suggest something like a special open house that could attract more potential buyers, even if they’re just curious, I can’t imagine she wouldn’t at least be receptive to the idea. As long as you get some serious buyers, she ought to be thrilled.”

  Meredith wiped her hands on her apron, and then hung it on a hook. “Let me show you the benefactors and travel area of this house. It’s actually my formal dining room, which doesn’t get used much.”

  “From what you’ve told me, you actually have three goals you’re trying to accomplish,” Jill said. “Sell this house, expand your catering business, and travel. Where is it that you most want to go in Italy?”

  “I’ve never seen Tuscany, where my mom is from, or Abruzzo, where some of my dad’s family still lives.”

  “Since it’s a dining room, you can easily decorate with an Italian food and wine theme,” Jill suggested. “That would take care of the travel aspect and your catering business, too.”

  “I found a sign, Food is love, that I’d like to put above the doorway. But what color would be best on these walls?”

  “We want to make metal a primary creative tool in this room,” Jill said. That means a wall color that isn’t a shade of red, as it is now, since fire melts metal.”

  Meredith frowned. “I was so hoping not to have to paint the room white to represent metal. It would be so bland. I’d really prefer a little color.”

  “You might think white would be best, but actually, I believe a soothing gray is the ideal color for this area since it’s located between the creativity square, which is white, and the career square, which is black or blue. Any shade of gray would do, but if it were me, I’d use a blue-gray color to also represent water—the other creative element in this square. As for accessories, you’ve got a gorgeous pewter chandelier, a metal wine rack, and a glass vase of fresh flowers. You could add two pewter candlesticks with white candles to the table, along with that glass vase, and just go with bigger, brighter colored flowers in the vase.”

  Meredith wrinkled her nose. “That gray paint color still seems kind of bland for my tastes. I picked pomegranate for this room because I like bold colors.”

  “I agree that you picked a beautiful shade, and it’s perfect with your dining room set. I think it’s always good, though, when you’re trying to sell a house, to keep the colors as neutral as possible so potential buyers can envision their own furniture in the room. Maybe you could spice up the room and enhance your Italian food theme with a few framed posters of Italian country scenes or still life paintings of food and wine. The neutral palette would be a good visual backdrop for the art, too.”

  “Okay, I like that idea,” Meredith said with relief. “Now … if I can just recruit my sons to help me paint the room this weekend, the open house could be held next Sunday. We need to get this house sold before I have to drop the price again.”

  “Something tells me you’ll be out of this house in no time,” Jill said. “And with a bigger kitchen in your next house, you’ll have no trouble expanding your business and saving enough to take that trip to Italy. Maybe by then, you’ll have a new man in your life to go with you. You said it: Food is love.”

  Denny was cleaning brushes in a mud room off the garage when Jill stopped by. He had his back to her, and he was bent over just enough to give her an appealing view of his jeans-clad bottom. A rather wicked thought suddenly crossed her mind.

  Hearing her footsteps, he turned around. “Hey, this is a nice surprise!” He wiped his hands on a towel and gave her a kiss that nearly caused both of them to lose their balance. Jill righted herself by holding tight to his arm.

  “I was over at Meredith’s house doing a feng shui consultation when suddenly my car developed a mind of its own, made a sharp right, and headed over here. I thought maybe I could cook you dinner tonight.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that idea, except I’m low on provisions.” He shrugged. “I’ve only got eggs, bread, and some strawberry jam.”

  “We could have breakfast for dinner.”

  Denny got a gleam in his eye. “I like breakfast in bed.” He scooped her up and carried her to the back door as she shrieked with laughter. “You have to walk from here. I’m still recovering from all the exertion of last night and again this morning.”

  “Funny, you don’t look incapacitated.” Jill took his hand and pulled him gently toward the bedroom, where the bed was still a tangle of sheets and blankets. “We could do some warm-up exercises, if that would help.” She raised her sweater over her head, unzipped her skirt, and let it fall to the floor, revealing shimmery thigh-high stockings and lacy barely there undergarments.

  Denny took in the sight of her. “Are you in the habit of wearing those to work?”

  “I am now.”

  “Sweet Lord,” he said, and proved to her that he was a man who could go the distance.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The last feng shui class focused on the relationship square of the bagua. Jill thought it was important to make it clear that relationships were not just of the romantic persuasion. With Thanksgiving dinner planned at her home later that week, Jill looked forward to having all of her loved ones for dinner, including Denny. She hoped he wouldn’t feel too uncomfortable under family scrutiny.

  “The relationship corner of the bagua isn’t just about romance,” Jill said as she started class. “But let’s face it: romance is obviously a very important reason why people enhance that area of their homes.”

  She pointed to the relationship square in the uppe
r right hand corner of the bagua. “I also overlay my desk at work with an imaginary bagua. My rolodex and business card collection is in the relationships corner of my desk—underneath a bag of these.” She held up a bag of dark chocolate kisses. Grinning, she passed the bag of dark chocolates to Joel, who took a fistful and passed them to Chris.

  “When we talk about the relationship corner, most people immediately assume it’s all about love and romance. But relationships matter in all areas of our lives—family, friends, coworkers, the people you do business with, and so on. Good or bad, every relationship matters. If you’re experiencing trouble with someone, you can ‘intend’ a better relationship through enhancements to this corner. There are important life lessons to learn from every person we know. Of course, if a family member is involved, you could also feng shui the family area.”

  After it made its rounds, Amy handed back the half-empty bag of kisses. “My relationship corner is my master bedroom. I guess that’s a good thing, but I don’t want to paint it red or pink. I really like the cappuccino color I’ve already got in there.”

  Jill popped a chocolate kiss into her mouth and reflected on Amy’s comment. “Actually, I don’t see a problem with cappuccino as a wall color, since lovers drink coffee together. Perhaps you could arrange two coffee mugs side by side on the end table on the side of the bed you don’t sleep on. Anything symbolic of twos can draw a partner.”

  Amy blushed. “Actually, I’m in pretty good shape in that regard.”

  The class hooted. Kristen turned to Amy with an exasperated look. “You’ve been holding out! You’d better tell us all the good stuff while we’re on break.”

  “It’s all pretty new. We just met a few weeks ago.” Amy deflected a paper clip that Kristen shot at her.

  Jill grinned. “Okay, but you still want this new relationship to flourish, so keep up the feng shui intentions in that area.” She began writing a list of enhancements for the relationship corner on the board: symbols of anything in a pair, sensual music, red or pink colors, champagne and two glasses, and even chocolate kisses. Then she wrote No cactus plants!