i caught myself staring at a shelf full of odds and ends the other day, thinking about how we'd come to possess each of them. we have some pretty cool stuff, if i do say so myself, and almost all of it has a pretty good story behind it. in some cases the story is about the thing itself, in others the story is about something the thing reminds me of. regardless of what makes an object sentimental it's fun to take the time to sit, stare, reflect, remember and regard it.i don't really consider myself a material girl. i like nice things as much as the next gal but i can love a shirt from old navy just as much as one from anthropologie. that's why i love our trinkets so much...the love doesn't come from how much it cost or whether or not it's fancy but from a place in my memory. on occasion when i cannot sleep (a lot lately)i will lie in bed and think about what five items i'd grab on my way out of the house in a fire. ryan, wil and animals aside, these are things i would miss if i no longer owned them, things i consider irreplaceable. it's a funny exercise because, with a few exceptions, the things i'd save are constantly changing. all of this, as you might imagine, is simply an introduction into an idea i had for this blog. i want to tell the tales of these things...make them come alive, if you will, for you, for me and if he cares to read them someday, for wil.
up first, the one thing that's always on the fire safe list....my bird.
i got this bird one summer in newport, ri. mom and dad were visiting us in MA and we made the trip to newport for the day. newport, in case you've never been, is a really neat and quaint town in RI. we had such a wonderful day and when i look at this bird i mostly think about our day. we had a wonderful lunch, drove the coast and looked at all the fancy mansions, mom and i shopped, dad and ryan bar hopped and we had a final drink to toast the day at the red parrot. while there dad drew a map of texas for the bartender on a napkin which she promptly hung up above the bar. i haven't been there since but i hope it's still there.the bird itself was one of those things that i saw and immediately, without any hesitation, knew it would be mine. i didn't care how much it cost*, didn't ask, and i picked it up and headed to the register. i bought something else in that store, too, but i cannot for the life of me remember what it was. i don't even know if i still have it!
i cherish this bird. i cannot explain it. it makes me so happy to see it. i think it's beautiful and quirky and odd. you can tell that someone put a lot of time into creating it (the shop gal told me that it was a local artist and one of a kind) and i love that. it was made with someone's hands and i wish, oh how i wish!, that i could make something so cool. it's something i will have forever and will be the first thing i grab (after all the living) in a fire. it lives in our bedroom, far out of reach of little hands, and if it were to be broken i might fall to my knees crying the same way my grandmother did when i broke her beloved giraffe. it's just a bird, i know, but it's the only one...and it's mine. next time you visit, ask me to see it...i'd love to show it off. but remember...you see with your eyes, not your hands.
*thrilling tidbit: the bird cost $35. i would've paid 100 times that and was surprised that i wasn't asked to. i've always remembered the price...probably because i was so pleasantly surprised by it.
