{things}

i am doing this amazing e-course at the moment which is quite literally unravelling me, and the ways of seeing myself! this week our assignment is to consider the inanimate objects in our lives, our favourite things, and what it is about them which makes them precious to us.

interestingly, what i initially thought would be a relatively easy exercise, actually proved quite difficult...

i am lucky, i am surrounded by many wonderful things. but when i came to consider what my favourites were and, more importantly, why? i was actually at a lost. i came to see, amongst the beautiful things i surround myself with, there was little with real substance behind it.

don't get me wrong, most things have a story; like the scarred leather jewellery box given to me (via cam) by this lovely old lady who used to shop in our shop. or the ornate rosewood sideboard which was my father's first purchase in the far east when he moved out there in his twenties... and of course, those stories are meaningful to me. but i wouldn't call them my favourite things...

when i did eventually find my groove however, i realised the magnitude of what some things can represent. how carefully hidden treasures actually carry pieces of your heart because of the memories they hold. for me it was not about the actual thing itself so much, but rather the essence they stored of the people who bought them into my life: the moments shared. the moments lost. and ultimately now, the moments cherished.

i realised, this week, i genuinely have very little attachment to things. and in many ways i am happy about that. it reminded me what made life meaningful and special is the people in it, because it is they who breathe life into the inanimate objects we surround ourselves with. it showed me how even pain can eventually metamorphosise into beauty, given time. and it affirmed my role in the memories i am choosing to carve for myself: through things i buy, create or capture through the viewfinder... because i too give it life, give it meaning.

i feel in some ways i am beginning to look at the details in life a little more, taking the time to look beyond the surface. i am looking in places i have not looked before, or in areas i've neglected for a little too long. i am wandering through the rooms in my head and heart, examining what is there, dusting down and polishing up the treasured heirlooms and slowly but surely removing what is no longer needed...