Good Morning.
I changed my living room around this past week. I moved what the antique dealers call a gateleg table across the room to a wall by a side window and put a chest of drawers the antique dealers call a chest of drawers to the wall where the table was. The official reason was that I couldn't open up the table to use for dinner parties where it was and I couldn't access the drawers in the chest because a Victorian settee was sitting in front of it. The real reason was because I was bored silly with the room. Now I can have at least four people for dinner and I can put stuff like placemats, napkins, and candles in the chest, but I feel ten years younger. I moved the settee to create a little walkway from the living room into the hallway and put my wingback chair where the settee was so I can look across the street at a house that has a flagpole in the front yard. I left the larger French-style loveseat under the front window because the dog would be traumatized if I relocated that piece. She guards the house from her post at the window and barks at passersby she doesn't recognize, a service I appreciate.
After a long, tough winter, I finally spotted a robin in one of my big trees in the front yard and decided it was time to give my life at least some kind of a jump start. In addition to the living room rearrangement, I cleaned out the closet in my bedroom and moved my lighter clothes closer to the door. I made a pasta salad for lunch that reminded me of spring more than a clunky sandwich with a cup of thick soup or leftover chicken casserole. I broke down a slug of boxes and put stacks of magazines into plastic bags for the recycle people. I will tackle the pantry that looks like a disaster area and renew my AAA membership so I'm not in a muddle when my car throws another fit. Spring cleaning we call it, but my instincts tell me we need a great deal more
than that at the moment.
Change is good and ruts not so much. Routines like getting out of bed in the morning, making coffee, always the same brand, and taking the same route home from work every day are one thing but tunnel vision with no glance anywhere but in one direction has its serious drawbacks. I know someone who, for reasons unknown to her or anyone else, suddenly decided to learn how to speak Spanish. Everyone looked at her kind of funny, but not a bad idea in today's world and now she can speak a second language while most people massacre English. It comes down to this: some of us thrive on new and interesting and others do not, and the others who do not are getting as clunky as the sandwich.
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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