Slow Sunday: Beautiful Things

You live in your home.

This seems pretty obvious but take a moment to think about it. You live in your home. Sure, your life is spent at work, on vacations, on neighborhood walks and in yoga classes; but it is also spent in your home. Your time truly is spent surrounded by the beautiful things you have chosen; sofas, wall art, and book ends. Your life is spent surrounded by things.

Gratitude

I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude lately (possible related to reading “The Gratitude Diaries” by Janice Kaplan). Kaplan talks about the lasting effect of investing in memories vs material items and it is a theme that has emerged in many other books I’ve read (mostly about minimalism, a topic which fascinates me). So we know that in the long term the time you spend with your loved ones is going to feed your soul in a way that shopping for trinkets can’t. People on their death beds recount memories of vacations, weddings, family holidays; but seldom talk about SUVs and Danish chairs.

More stuff won’t make us happy.

Opinions of others

So what does this mean for someone who loves design but doesn’t really want to sit on her deathbed talking about her favourite China cabinet? There is a difference between having things for the sake of having things and having things because you enjoy them. In the same way there is also a difference between not buying something because you don’t want it and not buying it because you are afraid of what people will think.

What we really need to remove is the weight of the opinions of others.

It’s Okay

It is okay to enjoy beautiful things. It is okay to have beautiful things that make you happy.

Choosing the right things is a skill that develops with practice and wisdom. It takes a lot of mental strength to like what you like and to not like what you don’t like. While it would be a shame to partake in a trend that you don’t like, it would be an equally great shame to not partake in a trend you do like just because it is a trend.

Do our things add to our lives, or do they just detract from our bank accounts? Do our things help us build the life we want to live, or do they only help build our image?

The conversation we need to be having with ourselves is what the things in our life do for us, not for our audience. Decisions are easier to make when you are only making them for yourself!