“I will add this praise, that I do not think her personally vain. Considering how handsome she is, she appears to be little occupied with it; her vanity lies another way.” ~ Jane Austen
Literary flotsam and jetsam, culled and curated by an eye that wishes to be more discerning than it actually is, float about in these parts like little toothpick boats on a rainy spring day. One never knows whether it will end in a rainbow or a harrowing trip into the sewer of Pennywise the Clown. Some of my blog posts lately have followed similar meandering trajectories. I’ll begin writing and think it will end somewhere that I have in the back of my mind, and then the words take me somewhere completely different, the tone becomes shaded in ways I can’t control, and by the end of what I’ve written, I don’t even know where I am. This is not out of place in the land of 2020. In many ways, I’ve come to accept and almost embrace such an uncertain rhythm of life. It’s a good way of clearing out any remaining cobwebs of perfectionism that cling to the way I go about my days, a good sort of trouble that results in something better.
Messy is the message, downright disastrous is the journey it takes to get to the message, and unexpectedly grateful is my countenance. This may just be the year I grew up a little, and with growth comes a certain amount of pain, and letting go, and none of it regrettable.
I do still love Tom Ford, but rather than the extravagant velvet blazers or pungent Private Blends, I’ve honed it down to a pair of basic black underwear. Simple. Elegant. Minimalist. Refined.
I do still adore a colorful silk scarf, but favor the one I found in Savannah a long time ago instead of something new or of the season.
I do still long for the unknown excitement that accompanies the curtain of a Broadway show I’ve never seen, but I find equal enchantment in perusing a book of paintings while the sun slants through our bay window.
Silly, trifling things, I happily admit, and I am so grateful that they are so.
“I would much rather have been merry than wise.” ~ Jane Austen
