My Space

The small house that I and my family have called "home" for a quarter of a century, has grown. It's dimensions are the same size they have always been but the occupiers of the space have taken leave for spaces of their own, leaving me with this space, for my own.
This newly available space has been the subject of many recent considerations as I thought about paint color and room use and objects for decoration. It's a mental activity that I have always enjoyed as I poured over decorating magazines and brought home stacks of design books from the library to inspire creativity dreaming of room re-do's.
This room that I've been working on has been available since November when it's dweller signed up with his best girl for matrimony. It has taken this long to come up with a plan and the time to implement that plan.
I finally woke up one morning that I didn't have to go to my job and thought, I'm going to paint that room! The room painted still left me with decisions about furniture placement but it's always easiest for me to put it in there, move it around and actually see it to make a final determination. I also enlisted the opinion of my son who had an idea that I had not even considered and as it turns out, his idea was the best one, and I love the space!
I now have a "library" / guest room / craft room. The library part is really the only part finished but I am so excited about it! I had 2 sets of shelves that happened to fit side by side on a small wall and they don't swallow up the space in the room. My beautiful books are for the first time all together and easily accessible like a real library! I am not a big fan of novel type books, I gravitate toward design and decor books filled with pictures that inspire me to make something fabulous. I have some very old books, a couple that were my Dad's as a child, I have devotionals, short story books, books of poetry, and love letters, sweet sentiment that reminds me of the beauty that is this life. I have a collection of childrens books from when my kids were little that are as entertaining and amusing now as they were then. It's good to revisit a childlike perspective of innocence from time to time, these books assist!
I can't leave well enough alone. Book shelves cannot possibly be for only books, so little treasures were added to the nooks and cranny's filling vacant spaces with framed photos of family my hearts joy, a heart shaped rock found on a trip, a small wire bicycle handmade by the Zambian people my parents were missionaries to, a hand painted tie that was my grandpa's, some skeleton keys, a horse shoe, a couple of unusual pop bottles saved from travels, a bird shaped tag from a special birthday gift, and there are more.
It's so much more than a library. It's a museum! the artifacts of my life are contained in that small piece of square footage. It is my history in bits and pieces. I was so thrilled to be placing each of the items as I recalled the reason for which the item was acquired, and so thankful.
All at once I thought, this is a grandma's room! Grandma's all have these spaces, I have become them! It even smelled funny! Then to my relief, I remembered I had a bag of scented candles in there!
Maybe it just is a right of passage to have a space like this, one that until you have lived the right number of days, until you have raised your children, until you have an empty or emptying nest, you just don't have a right to.
There's a price to pay for this right. While I finally have the space that I desired for so many years, and can fill it with all my simple treasured objects of wonderful days past and fondly remembered, it comes at a cost.
Within these same walls over this quarter century, entire childhoods have come and gone. The room has had a patriotic theme, a black and white theme, it's been blue and it's been gray. It has been carpeted, tarrazzo, rugged and tiled, It has contained 2 beds, 4 beds and 1 bed, and the belongings of the sleepers in those beds.
I picked many a crayon and Lego out of the cracks between the carpet and baseboards. This is the room of toy car driving, band instrument practicing, trophy displays and a hang out enjoyed with many friends. From this room sleepy little wild haired boys emerged each morning wearing only t-shirts and underwear. From this room bare footed boys bounded out with energy and excitement to get to the plans of the day. After stepping from this room, one day at a time, my little boys stepped across that threshold so many times that the journey they began then, took them into their manhood now.
It has been a journey on a path paved with so many precious fleeting moments, and it is now my right to have this space of my own and to fill it with the objects that bring back the memories. One could never replace the other, not even a remote possibility, it was all so good then and it is all so good now.
If you get to Florida and need a place to stay I have space. I will welcome you into my space and joyfully tell you about the quirky display of "things" on my library shelves, in my museum.