Confession time.
I love ‘things’: material things. Possessions. And…..here’s the thing. I make no apologies for it.
I know, I know. Not very politically correct to admit that, but then, I’m seldom know for being politically correct. I am known for being honest, so there you go…a trade off.
Shoes, oh lordy….a gal can do anything with a kick ass pair of shoes on her feet. Look at history…Dorothy saved a few homeless people; defeated the bad witch; conquered Oz, and made it home all wearing a pair of red pumps. Sparkly red pumps!
Those Elves helped save a poor working man’s business by making countless pairs of spectacular shoes (I can’t help but think Jimmy Choo has them on staff now).
And who can forget Imelda, all of the Popes, and many a finance minister in Canadian history since Donald Fleming…and the role that shoes played in their stories.
Other than books and shoes, I especially love home decor, and my greatest two weaknesses have to be bedding and tableware….linens, flatware, serving dishes, wine glasses, and dishes.
During my working life, we entertained …a lot. Dinner parties were the norm and we hosted them often. Other than holidays, we rarely entertain any more, but I still hang on to all of my tableware….just in case. Ridiculous.
I have table linens for every holiday (several for Christmas), every season, in every colour and a variety of fabrics. I just tabulated and I have nine sets of dishes. Even to me, a self confessed ‘material girl’…. that sounds obscene. Who needs NINE sets of dishes?! And that doesn’t include the ones I have for our brick patio (no glass allowed by the pool) or our camper. It also doesn’t count the sets I have given away or sold in yard sales over the years. This whole exercise has sort of put a target on my back for an episode of the show “Hoarders”…except I am very organized.
So, I have decided it’s time to get rid of some of the things that I love…but never use. I think that I will keep just my three sets of white dishes….one plain, one with gold trim and one with silver…mix and match capability. The rest need to go. I need to downsize, purge, get a grip on my ‘addictions’.
I have a beautiful set of expensive china that I treasure and has special meaning, as it was a wedding gift for my first marriage and given to us by my mother in law whom I adored. Does letting it go mean that I am somehow letting her go? Absolutely not.
What it means is that it is sad that no one is enjoying those beautiful dishes. It means that it is crazy to have something you say means so much to you packed away where you never see it…let alone enjoy it. It means you have too much stuff. It means it’s time to lighten up.
Most of all, it means that it doesn’t matter what you eat from, or off of…as long as you have food to eat.
It means that the people that value you the most don’t care what your dishes look like.
What it means is that it’s the people at your table that make it interesting, fun, alive.
It means that it’s the people that sit at your table that make your table beautiful, not the dishes on it.
So one day soon I will dig through all that stuff and find that china. I will sell it, BUT, I will not buy more dishes with the money. Instead I will gather all the people I love and that live near and we will once again sit at my table….with plain white dishes.
offthecuffbyplnear 