I am making an altar.

A what?

An altar. Yes, my children think I am a little kooky, but who cares? A fellow Unitarian got me going on this when she spoke about her own altar-building in a gathering recently. Although my desire for an altar had been growing for a while, until then I had no design to follow to make my own.

I remembered a friend’s birthday party years ago at which we were each given materials to make a small framed shrine to our creativity. The altar is a kind of enlargement on that idea.

My altar has a Buddha as its center. But I am no Buddhist. The most I know about Buddhism comes from observing the quiet intensity of the Laker’s coach Phil Jackson, and from a children’s book I used to read to my daughter about a serene cat.

I came across my Buddha back in December, while buying presents at a new-age store in Greenwich Village called “Stick ,Stone & Bone.” A hefty little figurine made from a dark red resin, it flashed a gold-painted head and body, and its hands were fashioned in the meditative forefinger-to-thumb pose, its feet flat, soles up to the sky, legs in a perfect lotus position.

The Buddha was too good for me in December. Still, I thought about it often, and when I found myself on Christopher Street buying Easter candy at Li-Lac Chocolates, the Buddha called to me again. Happy to see it was still there, (Buddha business is slow sometimes) I picked it up, then put it down. I held another Buddha, a squat laughing one, at half the price. I tried leaving the store with no Buddha at all. Finally, I bought the Buddha. “The Buddha made me buy it,” I told my family later as they laughed at my folly.

Most modern Americans grow up without the precedent of a home altar to guide us. We think of them as shadowy aspects of religious fervor. Though the very word “altar” suggests religious convention, the act of building a home altar is more like focused home-making. Picture a centered Martha Stewart. It is something many of us do unconsciously by assembling family photos on a mantle, or displaying favorite jewelry on a dresser-top. In her book “Altars”, author Denise Linn writes, “Since time immemorial, the primary function of altars and shrines has been to provide sacred ... places amid the ordinary reality of life.”

Our living room, for example, has many images of bridges, in a reference to our own little bridge to the islands outside our home. The bridge image has many levels of meaning for us beyond the physical structure, however. It suggests emotional bridges, connections to others, and links to our past and future.

As with any spiritual endeavor, the value of an altar increases with consciousness. The altar I am building is drawing its energy from family images, personal reflection, and the peaceful structure of our home on the river. I hope it will help me focus my energy in times of stress, and give me strength in weak moments. Of course, I know the altar has no will of its own, but having a place to concentrate my energy on an everyday basis may be a powerful new tool for living consciously. I’ll let you know how it works out.