Let me first clear something up. This question didn’t come up in a church but in our house. Yes, as I made an altar to sit in front of when I did my daily meditations and it happened to be in our bedroom. Our daughter always had her favourite thing for each phase in her life as she was growing up; she used to put it up on the altar without saying a word. She used to say it had its place there, by the flowers, candles, water and the in-cense sticks.
Initially, she put relatively simple little things up there, like pebbles and sticks. Then, when she was about 4 when she started collecting snail shells like crazy. No, I’m not ex-aggerating, I literally found empty shells all over the house, under the pillows, in her dolls’ hair, even mixed in with sugar cubes sometimes. And they were there on the altar as well of course, lined up strictly in order of size.
Once during my evening meditation, I was faced with an absurd moment when one of the shells we thought was empty started sliding across the alter bravely, leaving a silky trail.
I’m not sure who was more surprised, me, who realised that a living creature was crawl-ing on the altar or the snail, who found himself on the cool glass of a meditation picture after having been found in the freshly smelling lawn of the playground. At first I wanted to remove him, but then I remembered an important teaching: always work with what-ever you get. And if this something happens to be a snail, then so be it.
I had already felt pleased about the empty shells for a while: their emptiness reminded me of impermanence. And this little snail slowly crawled all over the altar, making every-thing fresh once again. It felt good to see him and wonder at things together with him. He stayed there with us for days. Later, we placed more serious things on the altar, like the ashes of grandad in a small bottle, a deer bone we found in the woods and the best bite of freshly made food. They can all become wonderful offerings if you make them from the heart.
I hope you have an altar in your home, too. If not, I recommend setting one up. Find a nice picture, place some fresh flowers next to it, some water in a small bowl, and an in-cense stick stuck in white rice. Be creative and always keep your altar fresh and clean. Then, to do your practice properly, place a candle in the middle, light it and sit down to meditate.
And, if your altar is honoured by the presence of a creature, welcome it with a warm heart.
