wednesday therapy

I started decluttering a few months ago, back around when I started counseling and nesting in advance of this sabbatical. I still have closets stuffed full with stuff and probably always will. I live in an old house with little built-in storage, which includes shelving that came to replace what was an exterior door. I had vases on display there, aesthetically OK but void of purposefulness. I never have more than two or three in use at a time and wasn't sure how to respond if the ghost of Thoreau ever came asking what the other six or seven are for. So I donated those along with half a closet of other pieces longing to be cycled in search of their own new opportunities. It's been a challenge at times to resist the urge to enter the thrift shop myself to fill the space left behind, but empty shelves served their own aesthetic. It's been a challenge also to resist accumulating too many new artifacts as I've been adventuring. Pictures have sufficed as totems, and having this blog to display them satisfies the craving to curate. Yet I exhausted the need for strict asceticism, especially now that I've had such an abundance of time to stare at the nothingness and reflect on purpose. So I decided those shelves that were once a door could now serve as a gallery of specially selected mementos of this time I have away from work.

It's a small collection still, deliberately slow growing, consisting of a card from the wedding I attended in July, the crystal from the shop run by the woman who guided me to Ringing Rocks, and a shell I took home from our afternoon down the shore. Today I thrifted two pieces, small bits of glass to frame the items. I had paving work done around the yard in the spring and was left with two buckets of sand. I used one to add drainage to the soil under the rosemaries in the herb garden and the other has sat in the garage in search of its meaning. I used a scoop of that one to prop up the shell and add weight and visual appeal to the jar holding the labradorite, and to memorialize the home improvement as well. I think next summer around the anniversary of my temporary retirement I might package what's been collected in shadow boxes and scrapbooks to be moved upstairs to the library for longer term storage and archival, lest they grow stale and become meaningless background noise down here. In the meantime, I've nearly perfected the buffalo chik'n sammich.

While frying up a patty I buttered and dusted with onion powder a sesame seed bun and mixed a tablespoon of toum with half as much hot sauce for dressing. I washed a slice of iceberg and tossed it in the freezer while cooking. Once the patty was done I topped it with a spicy chao slice, and when that was melted I killed the heat and added the bun to the pan to toast and steam. Crispy, spicy, garlicky, easy fifteen minute favorite.