My great room is great only in the comfort I find here. Each piece of it was carefully purchased, put together and decorated last Fall, which is relatively unusual for someone my age. Other than the books I brought with me and three small sculptures, everything else is new.
The bedroom is not much different. My small television, my clothing, my CD's and DVD s, a dresser of mine that my sister had, my jewelry box, my musical instruments and one photo are the only old pieces in my possession. It is strange to think of a lifetime of living whittled down to this and yet... it is the essence of me.
Oh yes, there is the large orange juice can from 1982, covered in faded green construction paper and carefully decorated in black marker that I received for Mother's Day that year from my oldest son. It is filled with pens, pencils, one nail file and four treasured bookmarks given to me by dear friends over the years. My digital camera that is one of my favorite toys and a Limoges hat pin holder with my great grandmother's hatpins in it are here; as is one small covered Wedge wood trinket dish and a small rock with a turtle carved into the top of it.
It seems I have a lot more than I thought. Even someone who thinks she has, and indeed really has, down sized her life drastically, still owns more than much of the world. Perhaps that is why I do not feel any sense of loss for what is no longer in my possession. It is still so much.
As I sit here surrounded on six sides by plaster walls, cottage cheese ceilings and carpeted floors my world floats around me in thoughts reproduced on this computer and sent out into a world that sends back so much! I think the ability to write and share this world is what feeds me. My work at the museum and school are the dessert that really top everything off.
I often find myself looking out the window and thinking that this is my ivory tower and what a comfortable one it has become.
The bedroom is not much different. My small television, my clothing, my CD's and DVD s, a dresser of mine that my sister had, my jewelry box, my musical instruments and one photo are the only old pieces in my possession. It is strange to think of a lifetime of living whittled down to this and yet... it is the essence of me.
Oh yes, there is the large orange juice can from 1982, covered in faded green construction paper and carefully decorated in black marker that I received for Mother's Day that year from my oldest son. It is filled with pens, pencils, one nail file and four treasured bookmarks given to me by dear friends over the years. My digital camera that is one of my favorite toys and a Limoges hat pin holder with my great grandmother's hatpins in it are here; as is one small covered Wedge wood trinket dish and a small rock with a turtle carved into the top of it.
It seems I have a lot more than I thought. Even someone who thinks she has, and indeed really has, down sized her life drastically, still owns more than much of the world. Perhaps that is why I do not feel any sense of loss for what is no longer in my possession. It is still so much.
As I sit here surrounded on six sides by plaster walls, cottage cheese ceilings and carpeted floors my world floats around me in thoughts reproduced on this computer and sent out into a world that sends back so much! I think the ability to write and share this world is what feeds me. My work at the museum and school are the dessert that really top everything off.
I often find myself looking out the window and thinking that this is my ivory tower and what a comfortable one it has become.
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