What We Hold On To

I’m not a hoarder, but rather a collector. I don’t like clutter, but I like the abundant, eclectic, scattered placement of objects that I value. This morning, I took a happy little spin around my vieille maison, reminding myself of the stories associated with each little knick knack. 

In our kitchen, there’s two paintings. One depicts a strange silhouette of two people dancing and was a gift from our next door neighbor Tony. I think he was planning on throwing it away but he likes to bring things over to see if we want them before he trashes it. The second is a painting of a plaza in France, a present from my first French teacher. On the back of the painting he wrote me a letter, including a list of recommendations in Paris. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever been gifted :’) 

Next to the art, we have beautiful wind-chimes, gifted to the four of us from our dear dear friend and neighbor Liliana. Liliana’s generous self is truly all around our home- oven mitts, postcards, and jewelry bowls all gifted to us from her many travels! (Not to fret- I can be found at Liliana’s house too in a special little section titled BAD ART WALL)

In my room and the other girls' rooms around the house, there is an arrangement of artifacts we’ve collected for one another. On my nightstand, my jewelry is kept on two blue plates. One plate is from Caroline, a gift from her semester in Granada. There’s daisies and roses depicted on the dish, a beautiful representation of the two of us and our symbols we associate with. The other blue plate is from Han, gifted to me when she came back from her semester living in Italy. The plate has an E painted on it, and matches with the one she gave to Grace. I love my plates- Grace and I both brought ours with us when we went abroad. On the wall above my desk, I have a painting done by Kiki and another one above my bed done by Han. I keep a quill from Oxford on my desk that Eva brought me after studying there, and it's surrounded by finger sock puppets that Grace knew I'd want when she went on a trip to Rhode Island. I have hair ties and chopsticks from my brother's solo trip to Japan and a daisy drawing gifted from a friend’s ski trip in Vermont. Amongst these are soaps, notes, and books from other spots visited by my loved ones.

It's a simple thought, but the museum of little items in my home today made me really think about how the people and places that are attached to stuff are what makes something truly sentimental. In this age of over consumption, it's easy to buy things that we don’t necessarily need. Today and all days going forward, I want to remind myself of the material items that I truly value the most. I want to be more intentional about my purchases, and the things I choose to decorate my life with. We’re a reflection of all the people and things we surround ourselves with, after all