Ahh happiness....
You know if we were all happy all the time, we wouldn't even know it.
Which means that when I am happy, I am really grateful for it. Like today. I went to Vermont this weekend and brought back an absurd amount of rhubarb and strawberries. The warm, clear red scent of really ripe strawberries in my kitchen makes me nearly delirious with the joy of being alive in the same way that just bloomed lilacs do. Or the same way the woods smell make me happy, like spring water and leaves and dark damp earth and filtered sunlight. Happiness!
The other thing I brought back from Vermont was our old kitchen table that had been stored up in the barn at the camp. And this has made me much happier than I would have thought.
So as I mentioned in a previous post we all went through the cabin up in the woods to see if there was anything that we really really wanted. I took a million photos to send to other family members to see if there is anything they all want and then I realized that everything up there belongs there. Taking the one item out will never represent the camp experience for me. The camp is the sum of all the parts: the old woodstove we make eggs and bacon on, the battered kitchen chairs we perch on to drink and talk long into the night, the kerosene lamps we light in the absence of electricity, the wood & enamel kitchen sink, the stinky old outhouse, the weathered shingles that smell like maple syrup when heated by a long warm fall day...
This is all part of the experience at the camp and to take away any one item didn't make sense to me. It would just be a reminder of something gone - parceled out and carted away.
But then I realized I really wanted that old kitchen table set.
Rosebud, right.
Anyway, this set came from a summer house my parents had years ago. When they sold it, they carted all the stuff up to the Vermont camp. It reminds me of fun summer days and of shared family memories, of being barefooted and bathing suited and carefree and I wanted it back in my own kitchen.
How could something that reminds me of so many good times not bring me a little joy in my own house?
So once I clean it all up - it's been in a barn for probably 15 years - I will take and post a few photos. If for nothing else, this table has definitely been great incentive to finish cleaning up the kitchen once and for all.
Which means that when I am happy, I am really grateful for it. Like today. I went to Vermont this weekend and brought back an absurd amount of rhubarb and strawberries. The warm, clear red scent of really ripe strawberries in my kitchen makes me nearly delirious with the joy of being alive in the same way that just bloomed lilacs do. Or the same way the woods smell make me happy, like spring water and leaves and dark damp earth and filtered sunlight. Happiness!
The other thing I brought back from Vermont was our old kitchen table that had been stored up in the barn at the camp. And this has made me much happier than I would have thought.
So as I mentioned in a previous post we all went through the cabin up in the woods to see if there was anything that we really really wanted. I took a million photos to send to other family members to see if there is anything they all want and then I realized that everything up there belongs there. Taking the one item out will never represent the camp experience for me. The camp is the sum of all the parts: the old woodstove we make eggs and bacon on, the battered kitchen chairs we perch on to drink and talk long into the night, the kerosene lamps we light in the absence of electricity, the wood & enamel kitchen sink, the stinky old outhouse, the weathered shingles that smell like maple syrup when heated by a long warm fall day...
This is all part of the experience at the camp and to take away any one item didn't make sense to me. It would just be a reminder of something gone - parceled out and carted away.
But then I realized I really wanted that old kitchen table set.
Rosebud, right.
Anyway, this set came from a summer house my parents had years ago. When they sold it, they carted all the stuff up to the Vermont camp. It reminds me of fun summer days and of shared family memories, of being barefooted and bathing suited and carefree and I wanted it back in my own kitchen.
How could something that reminds me of so many good times not bring me a little joy in my own house?
So once I clean it all up - it's been in a barn for probably 15 years - I will take and post a few photos. If for nothing else, this table has definitely been great incentive to finish cleaning up the kitchen once and for all.
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