By mommie2zs in Love — May 22, 2015

New Spaces

I’ve never understood feng shui, but the difference a lamp and a chair have made are intriguing.

First up was a space between a couch and the wall in the hearth room. The corded telephone sat on the fireplace, a floor lamp that only partially worked sat next to the couch, and a vast tangle of cords and the router cluttered the space. I mentioned to my friend Mike, a garage sale maven, the size of the space, and he said he had a $2 table he thought would work perfectly.

Tucked the table in the space, put a small lamp on it, and suddenly the space is inviting and cozy. It is now one of the favorite spots for someone curling up with a book in the evening.

Now it's cozy, not dark. — Now it’s cozy, not dark.

Second is the story of the chair.

I can not attest to the validity of the story, but as soon as I write it down, that has to make it true.

There’s a rocking chair that I remember snuggling in for naps when I was a very little girl. I remember it from the front room of the house where we lived before we moved to the new house in the country, which means I would have been younger than 3.

My understanding is that the chair was purchased for Dad’s first wife, Pat. Pat had it to rock in before she died. I obviously never knew Pat, but her picture hung on the wall in our hallway as I grew up. My youngest brother looks very much like her, and I always had a warm spot in my heart for her, this woman who loved my dad and gave my brothers to the world.

Buds and I have had the rocking chair since we bought our first home. Our cats did not treat it kindly, so I attempted to recover it in my novice way. That worked for several years until the pins I used to recover it, including straight pins, began to work their way loose and scratch anyone who sat in the chair.