An Unexpected Extravagance

I had the opportunity to be the guest of a friend at a name black tie event in Chicago held at a large, upscale hotel. It had been quite a while since I last attended a dress-up affair. I thoroughly enjoyed taking it all in as we struggled to hear fellow guests (and ourselves) above an overly zealous orchestra.

A lovely and unexpected surprise was seeing turquoise-colored boxes tied with white satin ribbon, unmistakably from Tiffany, at each place setting. In an era of contraction, that simple, elegant box was something I thought had gone the way of zenith real estate values and automaker pensions.

While I appreciate beauty in the multitude of forms it may take, I don't indulge in conspicuous consumption and am beyond accumulating 'stuff' as a futile attempt to compensate for lack of self worth. I'm not disregarding inequitable world resource distribution. I'm just saying that after being incessantly inundated with batten-down-the-hatches news for what seems like forever and withstanding my own personal and professional armageddi, to see that lovely box, with its inbred reference to affluent material civility, was just really, really enjoyable.

The box contained two 'stemless wine glasses,' a style and labeling which I had not seen before. Could this be Tiffany acquiescence to resource conservation? I think not, but it does bring to mind the viewpoint about one's glass being half empty or half full, if not a bit truncated.

©2010 catherine lenard

The Pause That Refreshes

Sometimes 'time outs' are necessary. The past few weeks have been busy and productive business-wise with the feeling that items to attend to are escalating, yet at the same time progress is only inching along.

As with many of us, attempting to do many things at once has been standard operating procedure. In a recent household incident, I scalded my wrists while attempting to break pasta over boiling water. I later recognized the experience as a wake up call to slow down. As I described the debacle to a close friend, she asked, "Is anyone home?"

"Humor in truth," I thought. Attention in too many directions can counteract the best of intentions. How much do all of us miss by being 'future-task-list-oriented'?

I have a small garden plot that was overrun with weeds. I chose to sit and quietly, methodically, pull them without mentally running to the next 'thing to be done.'

Hands-in-dirt has usually been a good grounding (no pun intended) experience. It opened the door to a reminder that all I have is the current moment. While a tough one to keep in the forefront when most things shout the contrary, a true gift to remember.

© 2010 catherine lenard

Bob & Janet Had a Farm, Eee-aye, Eee-aye, Moo . . .

Last week I was asked to help ‘spruce up’ the retail space that sells the grass fed beef raised on Bob and Janet's farm and also their ‘bunkhouse-one-room-cabin.’ The request was motivated by an area-wide art opening weekend that featured a farm open house and also an exhibit by a nationally-known sculptor in the grand space of their barn’s rustic upper level.

While the cabin had next to nothing in it, it was a very intriguing rustic space constructed of wood and timbers. There were several "givens" to be used for staging—a blue pitcher received as a gift for an antique wash stand and several framed bird prints that the owners liked. We used furnishings pulled from every building on the farm including the barn, garage, shed, house, etc., designing on the spot. The end result was a lovely, romantic retreat that was created without the time and expense of purchasing anything new (sometimes possible, sometimes not).

The ‘girls,’ the farm’s free range chickens, checked out the new space before they were shooed away. Rumor has it that after seeing the newly completed room, the owner’s son and future daughter-in-law, California wine country transplants, may be spending their honeymoon ‘down on the farm.’


©2010 catherine lenard