Every Little Thing

When someone says he or she has a lot of "stuff," I usually think books. This is not true of the Shire. The Shire is packed to the rafters with stories instead. Yes, there are some books but you might not notice them for all the other Things. Every Thing here has a story. Everything. As I look around, I see only a few purchased items: a couple of toys, my loveseat sofabed, a Carolyn Meyer First Edition not left anonymously in the bookdrop of the Humboldt County Lbrary, a bird's nest lamp, and a suitcase. All the rest is comprised of gifts and hand-moi-downs. On the wall is hanging a sweatshirt from Erik & Kate printed with the words, " Careful or you'll end up in my novel." The two clocks came from Julia Miller. She was a young woman in Prelutsky's writing class who called herself a torch singer. Her father wrote music for the movies. She was given to mailing long, impassioned, philosophical letters which I have kept in a box labeled Helpers. I lost touch with her after moving to North Carolina but I have her clocks. Her husband manufactured clocks. She sent me two and told me to keep whichever one I liked. I liked both. One I right off named Donna, after my lovely voice teacher. Donna is a round mirror clock. The other is a sturdy square clock framed in pine. It seemed to shout the word, "Carpenter." I decided to call it Daniel after the Elton John song.The design has the numerals 1,2,3, and then it says,"etc." Donna ran a little slowly. Daniel was ahead by ten minutes all the time. I wrote to Julia to tell her I hadn't made up my mind and would return one as soon as I could. She wrote back telling me she couldn't separate Donna and Daniel and to keep both. This was in '79 and what I have done on all my moves is to keep Donna across from Daniel in the various rooms as though she is pining for him. At some point, as in the poem about Evangeline by Longfellow, I will move Donna next to Daniel to be with him at last. Another story is the string of stars. One summer in Roanoke, the Star City, Barbara and Henry spent some Mimsey Camp time and we made paper stars of all sorts and strung them on a wire. Wherever I go, I have the string of stars with me. I keep two stars in that suitcase mentioned earlier. Then there is the Winston Graham's garden poster--another story which deserves a blob of its own. And the art. Paintings galore. And rocks from my childhood wanderings with my brother. And wooden camels from my mother and scarves from Gone CoCo decorating the left-behind mattress from a former occupant at Lucille's which I turned on its side to become a headboard. There is a trunk rejuvenated by my brother and mother when I was nine. It is whimsically stuck all over with "antique" hieroglyphics. On a table borrowed from Stephanie, there is a playbill from a production of South Pacific from a time before zip codes and out in Bag End, there a cat wind chime of Lucille's. There is a found plank from a backyard in Durham on which I scrawled, "Whatsoever things are lovely." I have a collection of boxes which at one time was my favorite gift if anybody asked. I like the secret surprise aspect of small boxes. I like to decoupage cartons with quotes from old magazines. Oh yes, I forgot to mention pillows. There is a tiny one on which I was able to stitch part of an Emily Dickinson poem, "'It's all I have to give today, this and my heart beside." There is a shamrock pillow made by Daff in junior high and...well, I think you are getting the idea. There is a blue bottle collection b/c I love notes in a bottle and tend to come home from people's houses with a small one they won't miss. One is in the shape of the lighthouse at Cape May. No, I don't steal them. Such a materialist! So many things!

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photo credit: Cheryl Dolby-- from her book, LAYERS

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......may the blessings of simple gifts and pleasures be yours, be they neither a burden nor a task.....