What Stories Does Your Personal Space Tell?
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 12:48PM It's been such a long time coming that now that it's actually arrived it's sort of taking me by surprise. I'm talking about my return to domesticity and having the energy and focus to care about my "space." I have longed for it, I have planned for it, I have imagined it, but having the ability for it just hasn't been in the cards again, literally for years.
Until just recently this summer.
I knew it was starting to come back with a vengeance when I charmed my gentleman friend into escorting me to Target for a list of things Sunday, including kitchen towels in a very particular shade of fresh green. You see the truth of the matter is that I actually have a big Martha Stewart streak (as do all of the women in my family). I love decor. I can do a mean paint job. I love to plan parties. Given the time and resources I have been known to do calligraphy on the invitations to said parties - in an ink that matched the party's look and feel.
Ah yeah, I can go there.
What has been the most frustrating thing for me about my studio space for the past several years is that the outer mess did not reflect the inner creative renaissance going on. I get now that it had to happen that way. Don't we all see so clearly with that marvelous 20/20 of hindsight? As a student of metaphysics I understand that thought is the causal level, I do, oh but incubating can sometimes be such a long process, can't it?
Sometimes a good cleaning up and redecorating of the outside can sooo help jumpstart what's trying to happen on the inside. We all know a great new haircut can do wonders, a fresh coat of paint can give us a new lease on life. And yet, try as I might I just couldn't get up the energy, will or follow through to make more than the most rudimentary necessary efforts happen i.e. getting the laundry done and dishes done. Or if I would make some progress I would quickly backslide into a bigger mess.
But now the piles are slowly disappearing and staying gone.
A shift has occurred, and a cool summer has helped it along. I am rediscovering art work I thought I'd lost and the research and information from an old website of mine that will be so useful for my new book/website project. I'm rearranging drawers and letting go of clothes that I have not thought about in years. I'm remembering why I picked the colors for my bed linens and why I love them. I'm dusting my bookshelves slowly, lingering, marveling that I'm a person who reads the strange assortment of books that I do. What would others make of these choices? What would they think of my cross of "The Essential Rumi" with David Sedaris, Anthony Trollope's "Ayala's Angel (my very favorite of his work), and another book shelf with much of it dedicated to young adult fantasy fiction that goes beyond Harry Potter into the world's of Holly Black and Tamora Pierce?
I'm smiling at the art on my walls, and the photos from magazines of people who inspire me that I've ripped out of the vast quantities of magazines I so enjoy and tacked to a special wall. Hello Ray Charles, Karen Armstrong (whose book "Spiral Staircase" lives on my nightstand with a photo of my beloved great grandmother resting on top), Christien Amapour, Anderson Cooper, Jane Goodall, and yes, Viggo Mortensen. Hello to those who live bravely and arffully dancing to the beat of their own drummer. Hello to those who want to be excellent at what they love, and their life's work.
And hello to a me that has been long asleep. How will she express herself differently this time? I hope she's braver not on her ideas, but on the follow through, on the giving the space and time and energy to see things that spark her truly flourish.
What do your rooms say about you?
Reader Comments (2)
I really enjoyed this article. I am always trying to foster good relationships with people who can help my cause. This really breaks it down to a step by step process which is good.
Regards:tag heuer
Hi there:
Thank you so much for posting your comment - I always do best when I break things down into really easy small steps so I'm very pleased this made sense to you!