Monday, Moving On

It is Monday morning, July 30. Another month is about to end and I am facing a blank blog box in much the same way that I face a blank page. Do I have something to say today? Last night as I was falling asleep I could think of a number of things, now they seem to have fled with sleep. Maybe they weren't worth saying.

One wall of my master bedroom is now the most delicate, delightful green thanks to my young friend, M who has been painting for me. This color, chosen to complement a poster of Our Lady of Guadalupe, given to me years ago by another friend, is so clean and clear. It replaces a blue that had turned dingy after forty years of being on the wall. The wall took two washings--residual tobacco smoke from thirty to forty years ago is not nice to walls. It took two coats of primer-sealer, slurping it up as though it were a thirsty child on a hot summer day and then it received two coats of paint, lovingly applied. We are excited by this project, M and I.

It is good to have something new and fresh in my life. The room, once my parents bedroom, has a new future as a sewing and crafts room for me. My knitting and yarn stash will quit overflowing the living-room and be neatly categorized in the new "big room" as M has christened it. My sewing machine will be on a table of its own that I can comfortably wheel up to. My parents dressers will still be in the room and I plan to place photos and treasures on each. The dressers themselves are too valuable as accessible storage space to move them on. Other furniture will finally move on.

Leviticus says there is a time for every season under heaven. An old pop song from the 80's, I believe, says "don't hang on". I was reflecting on both as I sat in the room with the beautiful new wall last night and thought about how much this should alleviate my depression. "Decluttering and the cost of paint, with the kindness of a friend to apply it costs less than psychiatry and anti-depressants." We will see if the approach works. Purposefulness helps too, I think, although medicine certainly has its place too.

I look forward to what I will make in this room and to selling it on Etsy and even through this blog.