Whether people are fully conscious of this or not, they actually derive countenance and sustenance from the ‘atmosphere’ of the things they live in and with. Frank Lloyd Wright

To me, this is similar to the concepts of feng shui.

Well, as I’ve said before, I’m not a minimalist. Most days the things I live with give me comfort and joy. They make me happy to have them surround me. I remember the love in the gift or the one who gave it to me and that adds more to the general mix of my surroundings.

Occasionally I have moments of wishing I were a minimalist, but what to move out? Nearly everything has a favorite spot. I like the way they look in one place, but they don’t look at home in another. I don’t feel at home with them there either, so I move them back or change their location. Occasionally I move them around, see them differently and enjoy the new spot, or give a few away, then the feeling passes. And I am once again at least fairly content not to be a minimalist.

I used to do cross stitch and needlepoint, including some petit point, and likely never will again, so those pieces represent a time in my life. They are definitely one of a kind, at least one of a kind made by me. I tend to rotate those by season. I have enough that my kids can have some when they set up house, and I’ll still have some for me.

Space is at a premium until College Girl takes some of her art with her (and I will fight her for some pieces.) (She knows it.) But somehow I feel living with art and things of beauty has encouraged the creative and artistic endeavors of all my children. Their artwork hangs in my hallways matted against black matting paper (not framed.) But their collection looks quite dramatic, and I love seeing it. So do they.

So, yes, I agree with FLW. But really, I would like to at least have some tendencies towards minimalism.

A Chinese friend tells me that Chinese believe that if you live with things of beauty, you become beautiful, like what you look at. That works for me!

How about you? are you a minimalist? do you collect? if so, what?

Karin

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Just thinking, Quotations