The 40-year old chair

My parents bought a chair over 40 years ago.  A rust-colored, tweed fabric, overstuffed rocker chair for the living room.  It ended up in the basement.  A finished basement, what would have been called a "rec room" back in the 1950's, where Beaver Cleaver and his pals would have been watching the TV.

But the chair was losing its oomph.  The rocker part was broken, which caused the chair to occasionally throw its passenger to the floor.  The tweed fabric had collected too many years of dust.  The seat cushion was not as fluffy as it once was, more like a balloon that had lost most of its air.

So I took it upon myself to take the chair apart, to deconstruct it.  Why?  Well it was too big to get it out of the basement.  My house is old with narrow stairs to the first floor and it was going to be a tough haul.

Scissors in hand I began to cut the fabric.  Whoa!  This fabric, dusty as it was, had the strength of steel - or so it seemed and felt as my fingers began to blister.

This was going to be a tougher job than I thought. 

Use It Up!

About a year ago I started on a campaign to use up things that were accumulating in the house and the office. Extra envelopes, pencils and markers, and all the fabric that was waiting to be sewn into something were just a few of the items that made up the clutter. Motivated by TV shows like "Clean House" I began to tackle my own mess. Don't misunderstand - - my house didn't look like the ones on the show. My clutter was neatly boxed and stored in one or more of the many drawers or closets. Books, hundreds of them, were on shelves just waiting to be read again. (Can you ever be too smart, really?)

Fast forward to today and wow, what a difference it has made to use the supplies and donate or throw away the rest. Because along with the clutter of things going out the door has been the clutter of the mind. The experts say it will happen...that as you declutter things you also declutter more in your life. That you begin to treasure the important people and the most important items and you value what is best without getting lost in the mire.

Yesterday being Easter, it was the perfect time to take stock of the renewal process. And in doing so, I'm pretty pleased. There's still more to do, more to throw out, more to donate. But it's been a great start.

Happy Spring to everyone!

Smiles of Spring

The air is softer now and the sun is brighter. The darkness of winter is behind us and the lilacs are ready to bloom. Within the rain are the smiles of Spring.

It is the wonder of nature and the cycle of life. Enjoy!

Snow is not such a bad thing...

Scores of people in my area are rushing around today to get their errands done before another 20" of snow falls, and I know that there is lots of unhappiness because of the impending storm.

Having lived in a house at the top of a steep hill, on a narrow road that was hardly ever plowed, I know the pain of streets that cannot be navigated easily. I moved a few years back to a street next to a park, where there is plenty of room to put shoveled snow and nary a hill in site; to a town where food, wine and a fully stocked hardware is within walking distance.

But, even now I keep with me the lessons I learned at the top of my hill. I love snow because it is the one thing in my life that can slow me down. Snow gets me off the crazy, 100 mph treadmill of life. To fight the snow is crazy -- mother nature will win every time.

I decided that I'd let her.

Monday Brings the Rain

Monday is here and with the dawn comes rain.

It's a warm rain, almost a harbinger of the spring flowers that are not all that far away. The first of many seed catalogs has arrived and with that comes the imagining of what the 2010 garden will hold. It's always a delicate balance - some vegetables for eating and some flowers for beauty, a few of the tried and true plants and boldly experimenting with some new ones. So much to think about and so many choices.

But it is January and snow in the forecast is a reminder that there's still time - to dream, to plan, to imagine.

O, wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Pink Power Slipper Award for Favorite Video of 2009

I am one of the 39 MILLION people who have watched this video. Okay, I've watched it a few times but if this doesn't bring a smile to your face, not much will. Bookmark it, embed it, save it. On a day when the world seems a little dreary, just hit play.

Happy New Year!

Today is the last day of the year and the last day of a decade. Everywhere are lists of the best and worst of the last 10 years – the best movies, books, YouTube videos, websites, actors and actresses, food and television shows. Who puts these lists together? Some days I can’t remember the previous 24 hours, let alone the last 10 years. But that’s a function of age, isn’t it?

Thinking about it, though, it might be more a function of how much the average person sees, hears and reads these days. Technology has so greatly increased the amount of information we get on a daily basis that at times it is at overload level. I like that explanation better than the one where I’m getting old and the memory lapse is a “senior moment.”

I can look ahead more easily and 2010 looms large on the horizon. Every year I like to choose a new subject to learn. One year was languages – I chose Italian. (It helped that I was living in Rome.) Another year was cooking – got that down pretty well. I wouldn’t give myself the title of Chef but I can put together some tasty dishes.

This year I’m going for a subject that I deftly evaded as much as possible in school - the physical sciences. It seems like a great topic inasmuch as the environment is a constant source of news, and physics is, well, the theme of one of my favorite TV shows, The Big Bang Theory. I hope to get some inkling of what Sheldon is talking about.

I’m starting by reading Einstein, His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson. Not light beach reading but perfect for the cold winter days ahead. I want to learn about this man with the brilliant mind.

The book opens – and I’ll close – with a passage from a letter that Albert Einstein wrote to his son Eduard, in 1930:

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

And so I shall.

Happy New Year!