Making Waypoint Sanctuary
It’s been a relatively long journey for me to get to this point. Having started Tai Chi training 18 years ago this fall, meditation a few years before that, and Chinese medicine studies in 2010. I’ve put in the work of study, contemplation, testing, practice, certification, licensing, continuing education, and more to offer everything I do, and now this year, I’ve finally opened my first dedicated space to offer it all! In that way, opening Waypoint Sanctuary has been the culmination of my life’s work in Chinese medicine, meditation, qi gong, tai chi, martial arts, and Daoist studies and practice.
Beginning in December of 2024 we started renting the space for Waypoint Sanctuary in the Lafayette Mill in North Kingstown, RI.
It was a stressful and strenuous process painting and setting up the space, juggling that with parenting a then 2.5 year old, cold & flu season, and everything else life has to offer.
You’ll see it took trial and error to find the color palette for the walls. Acquire and setup decor, unpack all my books and stuff that had still been in storage since I moved from NC in early 2023. It’s still an ongoing process as I eventually setup a Daoist altar, and am working to fill out our entry way and shop. Eventually we’d like to offer more in the realm of herbal medicine, wellness products, and lifestyle goods, but I’m pretty happy with our little sanctuary in it’s current state and grateful every day to have the space to cultivate for myself, and work within to impart the gifts of what I’ve learned and cultivated with students and patients.
Below you will find some photos of the space throughout the process from how we found it, to what it’s become!
Shout out to my wife Grace and her/my Uncle Will for getting their brushes wet and putting some paint on the walls with me, and of course my mom and step dad for all the time they spent with Oriol to free me up to work on this.
Enjoy!
Oriol checking out the space on night 1 of renting it.
Oriol and my mom taking a look around.
Everything was Grey and Blue. Not bad, but not what I was interested in.
Let the paint taping begin!
Tried on some red.
bye-bye blue wall, hello red pillars!
Toned down the red a little, and tried on yellow walls.
Yellow and red are very common colors in Chinese temples and kung fu schools. Yellow gives the stability of the earth element, and red the energy of the fire element. Ultimately I decided it was not what I wanted.
So I settled on a neutral “almond milk” beige for the walls, and tried yellow for the pillars.
I could have lived with the yellow pillars.
Almond milk everywhere. Those blue walls took a few coats.
I briefly tried just yellow around the windows, which aesthetically I liked.
But I’m a highly conceptual person, and ultimately I went with colors representing the San Qing “Three Purities” of Daoism.
Hello yellow, blue, and red!
Don’t forget the private acupuncture treatment room!
Which now basically looks like this!
Settled on dark brown for the pillars for grounding, with a little warmth. Eventually planning to do some gold calligraphy on those.
Don’t forget the entry hall!
Which now looks like this! With a home made cubby bench!
Setup for a portable electric sink.
Moving in and setting up decor.
Testing setup for community acupuncture treatments.
Taped down squares to designate “arms reach” practice spots for classes. Notice they are the colors of the 9 Palaces, creating a compass and talismanic feng shui grid within the space.
Testing out meditation class setup, and getting the altar setup.
How things stand today. Thanks for being a part of the journey! I look forward to seeing you soon!
Talisman by a 3 year old.
