Home Sweet Home

This is my home. There is something powerful, something sacred about the place that we call home. It is the place where my family gathers, the spot where my treasures are, the place where I can be myself at my most honest and vulnerable.  Home is a place of safe abandonment of all the baggage of society.

I was fortunate to have lived in the same home for the first 18 years of my life. It was great to have one place that was mine. I knew every tree, each fencepost and where everything belonged. When I went to camp and then off to college, I was driven to set up my "home" before I could do anything else. I needed to set my foundation. In my job I moved quite a bit, but I wasn't ready to work until my home was established and in order.

Long ago I disregarded the ideas of home fashion and trend. I  like what I like. If I like it, then I'm happy to have it surround me in my place of residence. I love color. I delight in re-purposing items. It is important to having plants and other living things around me.

When we moved into this home just over 2 years ago, we decided to paint the exterior in time for my daughter's graduation party. After flipping through a magazine I saw the colors I wanted for our house -- green with pink shutters.  I presented the idea to my husband, and bless his indulgent heart, he was all for it. The green went on with little comment from anyone. But when we began trying samples of the pink -- it concerned many. My kids cast two solid negative votes and asked me to pick something normal.  They can have normal later. I picked delightful! Each time I see my home, it makes me smile to be there.

A friend came over one day and looked around, then she paid me a great compliment. She said, "You house just has personality up the wazoo!"  It does! This is a place I can create to my heart's content.

Our home isn't supposed to be a show place, a mansion with more space than a small village could make use of -- but a sacred place to renew ourselves, to celebrate life, to be nurtured.

Any place can be a beautiful home, once your heart holds it sacred.

Wonders of the World - 5

The ability to create and to appreciate art is the fifth of My Wonders of the World. In a previous post I shared with you that my word of inspiration for 2013 is Create, and the wonder of creativity is an important aspect of being human. 

My day isn't complete without some sort of creative expression, whether that's needlepointing the canvas that will become a pillow on my sofa, cooking a great dinner to be placed on a pleasingly decorated table or maybe I just decide to dress myself with a little more pizazz than usual.  It feels so good to create.  It is amazing what we have the ability to create.

When I walk into a museum, I turn into a human sponge.  I don't try to become a sponge, it just happens.  The evidence of human creativity causes a need to soak it all in.  On my most recent visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts, I felt like I had been a nomad wondering in the desert, dying for a drink of water.  My thirst to look upon examples of art was so great, that I drank it in with a sense of desperation.  As my thirst became quenched, I wanted to shed a tender tear at my state of satisfaction.

There are plenty of artists that I don't particularly enjoy and styles that I just don't resonate with. I visited the  Andy Warhol  museum, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, even though I wasn't a fan.  I didn't want to miss out on an adventure.  There was a long narrow piece that I was drawn to -- it was metallic with Rorschach like designs all over it.  I studied it and pondered it.  When I finally read the adjoining description, I found out the variations in color were a result of the combinations of the metallic palate and his own urine as he dispensed it as was desired.  What a hoot.  What a wonder. I love art.

When one is in the midst of graduate school, one does not have much discretionary income. Even in that financial state, when I saw one of Paul Sawyier's works while walking through the mall in Lexington, Kentucky -- I fell in love.  I had to have it. I had to scrimp and save and do without a few necessities to get that limited edition, numbered print.  It was worth it! Sawyier was considered a great grandson to the great Impressionists.  I was moved by his subjects, his colors, the subtle nuances of his characters.  For over 25 years it has hung in a place of honor in every home I have lived in. It still moves me and now, it is just part of me. Art is like that.