Things that Make Me Happy ~~~

Botanical bits, Family Pictures and Feel Good Things.

Natural spaces and imagery calm me and so many others. Even having the colour green in ones home is linked to feelings of calm and happiness. I grew up loving flowers and enjoying trips to the gardens in Niagara Falls and watching the river rush through Erindale Park. Yet I never thought about it as a kid. My Mom and Dad would get hanging baskets of fuchsia and I would watch the it gently swing around while the spring rains would pour down, release the scent of cherry blossom and scatter the petals with it. At some point, as with all of us who realize that we can be very intentional with the space around us, and starting with my own pink childhood bedroom, I began asking my mom if I could take little decorative things from around the house to place in my room. She loved buying me Disney themed things but she also gave me a folkloric book that really inspired me, it was so unusual in my mind. Vasilisa the Beautiful. I swear, I have a point and I will get to it. Bear with me. She gave me these huge jars of potpourri that were so very full of flowers and such an amazing scent. And I remember when she enlisted my aunt Rekha to sew floral drapes for my room, my grandma's room and the room she and my Dad shared. I started to notice that flowers and anything that reminded me of the ocean made me happy. And through the years I knew I could hold on to happy memories and grab hold of tangible things to surround myself with that evoke a good feeling. Many people understand this effortlessly but I continue to meet people who are great at so many things in life but are confused by decorating. Or others who don't think about it or don't really want to think about. To each his own, I totally get that. Yet, the friends I have made who are new to the country, who work hard but don't have much other than the close off their back that they arrived with, they at time have been so open to me just trying to liven up the space they were staying in at the time. And in these moments I see that caring about your place and caring about how someone else is living in terms of the way things look is not shallow at all. One friend in particular would talk how his whole life was work, hard labour and when he would come home and see a few little pieces of art that I created for him and the simple woven basket from a local ethnic store, it really lifted him up and reminded him that someone cares. In my home, particularly my bedroom, I surround myself with the florals, thrift store finds that feature birds and butterflies and beautiful second hand frames full of family pictures. No matter the kind of day I have, I can curl up in bed with my cats and look at the dried flowers hanging from every spot I fasten them. And it feels like an escape from the increasingly rough world out there.