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Write Your Own Story
I was sitting in a restaurant last week surrounded by friends, and we were all laughing, eating, drinking, and toasting the guest of honor. The long table was filled with people from all over the world who I didn’t know just a few short months before moving to Italy.
As if art imitated life (or life imitated art?), I zoomed out from that table scene and thought of the film “Eat, Pray, Love.” While there are so many uncanny parallels to my own story, there is a scene where Elizabeth (who has come to Italy to start her new journey) finds herself sitting at a table with the new friends she’s made, and they are all eating, drinking wine, and laughing. I’d thought of that scene so often since first seeing the film, and I remember wishing one day to live my life just like that.
A Home of My Own
As an interior designer, I have helped countless clients create the places where they live their lives - the places they call home. Through the process, they came to understand their physical and emotional needs and gained the confidence to express their own sense of style. From there, I set about finding the fabrics, furnishings, and artwork that brought their concept of home into a physical manifestation, but they were merely the props that allowed them to align with what matched their unique frequencies.
The Luxury of Enough
I wrote my first blog, called “The Luxury of Enough,” way back in 2011. Back then, we were post-2008 housing crash, and the once “must have” McMansions had become our white elephants. Self-storage units and pod use exploded, and our homes, garages, basements, and attics were bursting at the seams with all the things we just had to have. Soon we realized that the accumulation was choking us out, and maintaining, insuring, servicing, and cleaning our “stuff” was sucking our valuable life energy.
The Goodbye
The 18th-century French poet and novelist Anatole France said “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” Those words rang so true as I spent the past few weeks saying a bittersweet goodbye to the place I have called home for the last 22 years.
Full Circle
As I prepare to put this current year to rest, I eagerly anticipate the unknown of what is coming in the next one. I started thinking about this blog that I started over 11 years ago and thought it would be apropos to repost an edited version of how it all began. The message is still the one I am passionate about and I’m amazed how it still parallels my journey then, and now. If this blog has taught me one thing it is the understanding that life is a constant process of deciding what to keep and what to let go of.
The Nest Test
Fall is a beloved season of transition when the highly charged summer months are behind us and we ease into the change of pace that comes with winter. A walk out of doors, through rustling leaves and browning plants, we are reminded of the bounty of the natural world. The flora and fauna that selflessly showed up for duty in spring, and stayed to delight our senses in summer, have completed their cycle and are now bowing their autumnal adieu.
On a recent afternoon of putting gardens to bed, I came across a beautiful bird's nest. Carefully crafted from twigs, mud, and pine needles it had been built with the singular purpose of sheltering its newly hatched inhabitants. Vacated months ago, it had completed its mission and was readying its return to the elements of the earth. I started thinking of the parallels between the nests of twigs and mud and the homes we make from lumber and cement.
Ancient Wisdom
I’ve recently fallen in love… with a country. A summer vacation in Greece not only ticked off another bucket list item but it’s left me deeply impressed for many reasons. One was the beauty of the culture and history of the land. Another was the kindness and good humor of the people. Yet another was the sheer beauty of the land and sea. But one of the things that struck me most was the way the titans of their ancient mythology still weave their way into their modern-day lives.