~ : H O M E : ~Where is your favorite place in the world? Mine's at home. In this very spot, actually. I get up at 5:00 AM every morning JUST so I can sit in this chair. Getting up early gives me a false, ( I know, I STILL like it) sense of control over my day. I brew some coffee, nourish the dog and cats, microwave some oatmeal, add milk and sugar to my coffee ( which was dark enough for my brother to tell me it would peel the varnish off my car), grab either my knitting, dream interpretation dictionary, or the mac, and set myself down. Deeeeeep, deep down in that cozy chair.
I think this is the most spiritual part of my day. The second most spiritual part of my day is in the car. (But that's an entirely different post.) It's like charging my batteries for the day so I can move around and be mobile. It's not really day dreaming - rather morning dreaming.
Back to spirituality, I spend the red chair time gathering my thoughts about the day- it's a mental diary. Kind of. I look around my kitchen at all the things I've placed there. I melt looking at beautiful colors and what light does to them. What colors do to each other. I look at spaces and depth. I think about where the sun is and the arch it will draw with shadows over my house. And I sit in this chair to be grateful. To soak in TIME. Peace. I think about what I'll be teaching that day. What I'll be learning. I think about how lucky I am to get paid for doing what I love.
Hold on... time for a sip of coffee.
So! Back to the red chair. See the window just behind my coffee mug? There's a little bunny den down there around the back of the house. Doug (my husband) found him there. I think it's Peter Rabbit. I'm sure of it.And speaking of Doug - in he walks to the kitchen from upstairs with sheetmarks still on his cheeks. He kisses me good morning. Then he's off and ready for a run. Sometimes he get up first and makes the coffee, feeds the animals. Then Bjorn, our 5.5 lb Papillon dances around the house zooming in front of the cats, circling the floor until he turns into a blur. He stops, jumps up into my lap for a cuddle. Gunther, my oldest cat, snuggles in. Pretty soon we have ourselves a threesome.
And that, my dear friends, is how I prepare myself for the delightful task of soaking YOU in.
6 comments:
My favorite place is the Upper West Side of Manhattan on a Sunday morning. With nothing to do for the entire day but get caffeinated, do the sunday nyt crossword, and maybe walk to midtown for a movie, there is no better life.
Ooo man, that sounds tempting. Nice and slow and steady. You just wait. You'll be there in a flash.
I love opening the shades on a wall of windows that overlook South Padre Island, soaking in the morning light. Then a tender walk on the beach with my wife and the seagulls. It doesn't happen much anymore, but we take advantage at every opportunity.
Brian - I know just where you're talking about. I spent a semester abroad at the Lacoste School of the Arts in the South of France. It was humbling. Beautiful. I could live on bread, cheese, coffee with milk, and chocolate. The Mistral is something I remember, too. The wind that comes in threes. It was all so enchantingly real.
~Anne
All three of you talked about the morning. Opening shades, soaking in morning light, Sunday with the NYT and coffee. Walking on the beach.
We'll have to talk more about morning rituals....there's something there.
~Anne
That is interesting, because the only mornings I've ever liked are the ones that happen in Manhattan on Sundays. Usually, mornings are the pits and my body doesn't acknowledge that it is mobile for the first few hours. AND, usually I hate Sundays. They've always depressed me. I've tried to reclaim Sundays as an adult, making them my own and fun (read: no church for me). It's been an arduous process because Sundays were historically miserable days for me. But I think I'm on my way...
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