Oh my goodness, friends! Yesterday, was a glorious day! It has been 6 months and 1 day since I last had a place to call “my own” (nothing is really ours, per say – even our bodies are on loan!). Yesterday, November 1st, 2010, in the midst of studying for midterms (more on that another time), I moved into my very first apartment in Vancouver, BC. I finally have a home! Well, for the next year, at least, haha.
April 30th, I moved out of the place I called home in L.A., the same place, oddly enough, that I moved into November 1st of 2008. Hm…
Although I love where my life choices have led me to date (and truly wouldn’t change a single thing), I would be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling discombobulated over the course of the last 6 months. Leaving my career at lululemon after almost 4 years and completely changing my life as I knew it (no more Tuesday morning breakfasts with Amy and Lauren, or strolls down the street to the Brentwood Farmer’s market, no more cozy apartment, or, or, or – the list is endless) took a toll on me that I didn’t want to admit out loud, much less to myself (I’m one of those proud, I can-do-it-myself and “tough” ladies).
I don’t know about you, but when I’m feeling out of sorts and off balance, I like to have a safe haven to go where I can be alone with my thoughts to get grounded again – to re-center myself. Even though I move around a lot (7 cities in 3 countries and 12 different ‘homes’ since 2000), usually, my apartment is my safe haven. It contains the little things that represent me: the vase of roses on the coffee table, the uniform colored candles, the array of cookbooks and other books of interest on the bookshelves, the countless kitchen tools from Williams Sonoma and other magical places tucked neatly away in my kitchen drawers and counters, the cozy cream colored duvet on my bed, the pictures of my family in pretty little frames, the baby blanket I’ve had since I was 2 and still carry around with me – um – what? Ya, I said it).
The little things are what make the big things worth it to me. The little things are what ground me when I’m feeling I am being pulled in too many directions and need to re-focus (yes, even when I’m the conductor, to speak in a musical sense, of those directions).
So after 6 months of living out of suitcases and lululemon bags and not having any place to put my little things (much less put anything away), I am home. I recognize that homes are temporary (clearly), and I won’t get too attached to this one. But for the time being, I just want to say: Welcome back, safe haven. It’s nice to have you again, if only for a year.
Love always,
Lauren
xxx
Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life’s undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room. ~Harriet Beecher Stowe
