Aelwyd

I love discovering the etymologies of words and the crazy connections that go along with them. And they make perfect sense, but as I have never thought about these connections or origins before (hence the discovery bit), they amaze me, and I kind of walk around in a daze with separate ideas floating around in my mind until I can get it out of my system and connect the ideas, usually in the form of a blog post.


(I love words!)


I made one of those crazy word-connection discoveries today! See, I have this book called The Customs and Traditions of Wales by Trefor M. Owen. Today I started the chapter called "Customs of Hearth and Home". It started right off the bat with explaining that the hearth was the central gathering place of the home, the main place of activity. The Welsh word for hearth is aelwyd. Aelwyd also means "home", "dwelling", "kin", "fire", and "fireplace". This word encompassed the focus of people's lives, in other words. Home, dwelling, family, as well as sustenance in warmth and food.


Focus is a Latin word meaning "fireplace" and "hearth". The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines focus, as "a center of activity, attraction, or attention"; and also, "the place of origin of an earthquake."


Having been a part of 24-7 Prayer, I couldn't help thinking of the Boiler Room, the name 24-7 uses for its communities of prayer-focused people. Charles Spurgeon used the term "Boiler Room" to refer to prayer meetings. Before his sermons, supporters of his ministry would meet to pray, and just as steam and boiler rooms were the source of power in his day, so he felt that these boiler room prayers were the spiritual power behind his ministry.


A Boiler Room is like a "hearth" or "fireplace", a center of activity for the community, a focal place of family and life. Boiler Rooms grow up around people who pray together; they don't simply spend time together, but seek God together, to make their fireplace "the place of origin of an earthquake." A holy shaking, as of the Spirit. The good kind of earthquake.


Perhaps a shaking as when the "dry bones" in Ezekiel came together.....Ezekiel 37:7. "And behold, a shaking, and the bones came together.......and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceeding great army." From dry bones to an army.


My favorite quotation from this book: "In many farmhouses, ninteenth-century writers tell us, the fire was reputed to have been kept burning continuously for centuries..." It just reminds me of something...