This weekend my Boston daughter and her friends came down to the cape for what they call their “winter retreat”. They bring comfy clothes, food and drink, and settle in for three days. They park the cars Friday night and don’t leave the house until they say goodbye sometime late Sunday.
This year they brought “onesies” or what I used to call “feet pajamas”. We stayed up late both nights with them singing and talking late into the early morning hours. It was so much fun having them here.
When morning arrived just a few hours after we went to bed, I had to get up and go to work on Saturday, and today I’m just up early. Both mornings I tip toed down the stairs to grab breakfast and coffee. The house was silent and one friend was sleeping on the pull out in the family room. Access to my usual chair was effectively blocked by cushions and pillows. I couldn’t turn on the TV even if I could snuggle into my chair as I do every morning, so I filled my robe pockets with food and water and carried my coffee back upstairs.
I laid out my morning spread on my nightstand and propped myself up in bed, put the news on, and enjoyed my breakfast in bed. I found myself looking around the room in a new way. I never sit on my bed and read or relax. I never spend much time in my room at all – it basically functions as a big closet I sleep in.
A feeling of unexpected warmth and coziness washed over me. Looking around, taking in the oceany shades of blue and green, I found joy in the way the colors played with sun around the walls. Recently I bought a new area rug and a few things to begin finishing the remodel job I started three years ago and just didn’t have the energy or desire to finish. Spending this quiet time with breakfast in bed gave me a whole new perspective and slowly the ideas of what to do with the room began to form. Maybe 2014 will be the year I finally finish this room.
I love how you sometimes get a whole new perspective just by sitting or standing in a different place. Your mind wakes up and begins to notice things in a mundane landscape. Try it in a room in your home where you always spend time in the same chair or a room where you hardly spend time at all. You never know what your own walls will whisper to you. Today my walls whisper the word “spring” and in light of our recent weather, it’s a voice I welcome – even if it is just the slightest tremor underneath this week’s predicted storms.
And so, as another day goes by, inspiration sometimes creeps in with “feet pajamas” and new ideas play in the sunlight on some old walls, and…once again, I have written.
Leave a Reply