Using the Good...
Star date 2015. My mission: to seek out the little things in life that make my soul sing! I have shared before the anxiety I've felt about all our "stuff" that fills both mine and mom's houses. I've decided to just "Stow it, Edith!" Ha ha. No, really. It's time I just enjoyed, pitched, and most definitely USED the things around me. I am a user. I come from a long line of hoarders savers.
When my gramma passed away, I opened her chest of drawers to find boxes of little nightgowns and sweaters, aprons with embroidery, powders, scarves... All tucked away in the gift boxes I'd carefully wrapped for her. She continued to wear old, old dresses as nightgowns, safety pin aprons to the front of medium old dresses for every day, wear old dresses that looked fairly like new for good times, and leave new things with the tags still on! It broke my heart then. Now I'm thinking that little golden stash made her happy right as she kept it. She loved to have it because that's how she rolled, a little woman who saved a thousand dollars in one year... In 1920 ... from a meager little paycheck so she could go back home from Missouri, which she didn't like...with my grandfather and live in Indiana... In 1941 she reversed that, saving money in buried fruit jars to buy a farm and move back to Missouri. That money was so damp and mildewed from the ground that she had to iron each bill...
Mom is a saver, too... She saves her best, including the best bites of food to the very last. I'm a rebel. Pure and simple. I want to be sure to use things... Except for my stash of pretty glitter and art supplies, which I admittedly hoard. I may have to wear those old dresses as nightgowns as an old lady, and I may have to drink out of ugly cups then, too. But I believe in using and enjoying my things, and as a matter of fact, my grandmother's things and some of Mom's ...NOW!
This morning I again began a campaign to live a beautiful life... Little by little. It made me calmly happy eight years ago when I lived at home. Oh, sure I don't really do it perfectly. I just can't do much about some of the worn, shabby things or the uglies that invade some areas... But I can plan to lenjoy a lovely little breakfast of Ritz, peanut butter, and Sarabeth's peach and apricot preserves... I grabbed my lovely glass from my grandmother's china cabinet for my ice water. I lit a Woodwick candle and spread out a quilted runner I made for my Mama years ago when I actually turned out some handwork. The rains beat down again today.
My little mini-assignment for each of you is to find something in your stash of treasures and enjoy it...carefully! I'd hate to be the impetus for you to break a goodie. Let me know if you decide to enjoy a teacup or plate, a necklace... Whatever. I have gone on a one woman campaign to use dishware instead of paper plates. So far, I'm winning that battle... I've moved the good stainless flatware to the kitchen for daily use, and the super nice is next! No daughters or granddaughters await my things. I'm just going to explore some possibilities. I'm hoping you do the same.
Have a beautiful week!
Comments
Carefully of course. But then again, what if something does get broken? Isn't it better to have been broken, by the person who loved it? Than to be thrown out in trash, by someone later on?
Me, I never have been a collector. And I don't believe in keeping family 'stuff.' Oh yes, a couple of olden wedding dresses, and a old family needlepoint sampler.
But I will not leave a bunch of 'stuff,' for my kids to worry about.
But you know all this, about me. :-) We have had this chat before. and to each her own!
Tessa