Inspired by the Valentine vibe in the air, I have been thinking about Love. Not LOVE as in "I LOVE my husband" (which of course I do, he is a sweetie!), but of all the things I love: ideas and books, animals, gardens, collections, memories, hobbies.....all those things that help make you, You and me, Me!
I like to think that I am a well-adjusted, happy Wiccan. I love being Wiccan, truly! Wicca has made me feel complete and truly part of Nature. Someday very very soon, I am going to blog more about being Wiccan, why I am Wiccan and what I Love about being Wiccan!
Today, though, I am feeling nostalgic, sentimental, perhaps a little sad, because I think about my mom who just passed away two weeks ago. Not sad in a horrible way, with sobbing and hand-wringing and all that. Just wistful for the days gone by, and how a lot of the things I have are gentle reminders of happy times, or are comforting things. I enjoy my little collections and some have no reason at all for living with me, other than I love 'em!!
I know a lot of you are collectors; gatherers of "stuff" and "good junk". After all, part of being a responsible member of society is to do our part to reduce what goes into the landfills. (you know, Reduce, ReUse, Recycle, Repurpose).
Now we don't have a very big house. There is not a lot of storage. My husband and I share a closet about the size of a mouse hole. But we have lots (lots and lots) of Books. Wow, dontcha just love books!!! And yes, we do re-read a lot of them. Some of them are parts of series or by favorite authors. We have a lot of sci-fi/horror. Fantasy. Mysteries. Historical Fiction. And I have a ton of non-fiction books, including a large Wiccan/Pagan collection, gardening, crafting, birding and other nature subjects, and, oddly enough, books on collecting! (lol). The books are all over the place, on shelves, tops of chests, in baskets and there is an unfortunate group of books in an old laundry basket waiting for a shelf to go up somewhere. But I love these books, and can't imagine living without them.
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| A basket of my books |
I love my pottery collection, including very old things from my mom's family in France and Switzerland. I love the birdhouse collection, the stones, dishes, blue and white "anything" collection. I love my husband's beer steins and all his Navy memorabilia. There are many collections, some maybe only consisting of 2 or 3 items. I collect magazine articles: these help me collect ideas for all kinds of projects around the house, for planning gardens, for daydreaming, for inspiration.
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| China Hutch #1 |
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| China Hutch #2 |
A few of my collections.
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| Blue and White and Copper |
Clutter? Dust catchers? Taking up space? Perhaps. Love them anyway. Could I live without them? Yes, of course, because after all, they are just material things. For now, I love living with these things. And love is a many-splendored thing!
Do you love to collect? I'd love to hear about it.
Valentine Images Source
clip art sources
13 comments:
LOL! Great post Robin! Of course you already know about my "love" for mermaids and cats. I also have an avid collection of Eeyore stuff. (I guess that is why I love Bassett Hounds so much ! they so remind me of Eeyore ~ LOL)
As for clutter, well let's just say that I clean "a lot" every week!
Many Hugs,
Kim
Oh yes, and between my hubby and I we have so many books that we could open our own used book store (no kidding!) LOL
Kim
Collect? Boy, am I a collector from way back. Books, yes. Gave tons of them away and still have two full bookcases and under a table. Now I collect on my Kindle. Takes much less space. I have collections of faceless dolls, candles, crystal, angels, and loveable little bears. At work I keep my collection of singing stuffed animals. These are all things I cannot part with.
Mary
Generally speaking, I'm the world's worst collector. I get about 5 or 6 items together and then I lose interest. But I do successfully collect Goddess statues and religious 3D/wiggle pictures. I intend to blog about my collections some day. Oh, and maneki neko (beckoning) cats too.
Debra, I look forward to reading the post about your collections! I am sure it would be most entertaining!
Kim, you are right, Eeyore is reminiscent of a basset hound! And I do know your love of mermaids! Cleaning the "clutter" can be rather daunting, too.
Mary, I am one of the proud recipients of your books! I hope you have found great places in your new home for your wonderful collections.
I love this post Robin! I love seeing your collections ;o) I think collections are what makes a house a home! I have to admit, I was touched to see my painting on top of one of your hutches ;o) For me, I have a massive collection of stones, lots of cats, and aceo's. Some art dolls, woodland rabbits, oh yes, and my gargoyles ;o) I guess I have a little of this and that ;o) I also have my very first teddy bear and my second teddy bear too. Both bought by my mom. Love them! Have a great day my friend ;o) Can wait to read about your post being Wiccan ;o)
Stacy, I am glad you noticed your painting on the hutch. That is my Wiccan corner, near where I have my altar. How lucky that you have your first teddy bears. All my childhood dolls and animals are long long gone.
Collections!!!! Oh My!!! I have been trying ever so hard to thin out my collections. But the hardest collection to thin out is the collection of books. Like you, so many of the books have been read and re-read.
Many of the items in my collections belonged to older relatives, and I hang onto them because of that connection.
Jeanne, we sold a bunch of books when we moved from California, and have regretted it ever since. We have even purchased used copies of the books we sold.
I will sell, swap or gift pretty much any of my dvds/cds but everybody had best keep their grubby hands off my books! I have to really, really, really dislike a book to consider releasing it into the wild these days, I gave away about half of my collection when I first moved out of my parent's house 10 years ago and have regretted it ever since.
As far as other collections? I collect paper bits for journaling, tea pots that I purchased and that my mother passed down to me (I think I have 20 or so right now), wee bits of hand crafted goodness and art that people have made me, art supplies (I hoarde those - to be more correct) and my hubby collects bugs, beer steins, neat bottles and archeological relics and tribal items (mostly Mayan, Maori, Native American, etc.). We're quite the pair of collectors. :)
I was thinking for a long time about I maight love and I love my dogs. But otherwise I think I like a lot of things but not love. Well I love the bog outside as well :-)
Is Valentines day tomorrow? We don't call it that here, we call it All Hearts Day.
Have a great day!
Christer.
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