Ali Edwards has some insightful thoughts in her newsletter this week on the number of possible stories that can be told from a single photo. If you're not receiving it, you might want to visit her website and sign up for it. At any rate, I was inspired. Here are seven stories behind the photo above.
1. Gumbo night was awesome! The whole evening was filled with warmth and friendship and laughter...it still makes my heart full just thinking about it. And we decided it was one of the best pots of gumbo ever; now if we just knew what extra touch made it so good so we could repeat it. I meant to take more photos...had the camera conveniently sitting on the desk in the kitchen just for that purpose but between hosting, cooking and just enjoying everyone, I never thought of it again until after everyone had left. The decorations, however, were there at the end and they'll just have to serve as a reminder of what a great evening it was. Maybe I'll do better next year as our circle of local friends all made Tom and Durlene promise to come back next January so they could all have gumbo again.
2. After 42.5 years of marriage, Wayne and I are pretty good at finishing each other's sentences. At our age that's not a bad thing either because sometimes we forget what we were going to say. It's nice to have a partner who knows where you were headed in your thoughts when you get lost along the way. As Wayne was headed out to pick up fresh bread for dinner last night, I said Do you know what else I want? His reply was Fresh flowers. Now I don't buy fresh flowers very often, even when we're entertaining, but his husband antenna was receiving my message before I could even voice it. And when he couldn't find anything that fit my suggestion to buy whatever was fresh and matched the house, he wisely chose Mardi Gras...a great choice to go with the gumbo.
3. Learning never is wasted. When we moved into this house 21 years ago, I enrolled in a flower arranging class in what was then called the Leisure Learning program at our local junior college, non-credit classes designed to enrich your lifestyle. Once a week I carted artificial flowers, Spanish moss and assorted baskets and vases into class and at the end of it, I would go home with a lovely arrangement for some corner of my new home. It was fun and I learned there some of the same principles about color, balance and design that apply to scrapbook pages. And every now and then I get to put that learning to use and arrange a few flowers. I should do it more often because it always makes me smile.
4. Hoarding Selective saving can be a good thing. Like knowing that you have Mardi Gras beads, masks and other decorations when that suddenly becomes the theme of the night two hours before guests start to arrive. And, more importantly, that I know where they're stored and can put my hands on them without having to move seventeen kajillion things out of a closet to get to them. They live in a big plastic storage box along with a few seasonal decorations and some odd craft stuff. I've parted company with most of that stuff in past clean-up campaigns so in some ways it's surprising the Mardi Gras stuff has survived but since I use it so infrequently, it doesn't look old and tired so it's been spared the purge. Despite what those high-powered professional organizers might say, you never know when you might need it.
5. I know the exact occasion for which those Mardi Gras decorations were purchased. Heck, I could even find a scrapbook layout that contained photos of them in their original glory. We hosted a going-away party for our friends Michael and Charlotte as they were preparing to move to Cincinnati in February 1998. Gumbo wasn't on the menu but it definitely was Mardi Gras time and we put beads around every guest's neck as they arrived. Michael and Charlotte lived in Cincinnati for a few years and then moved to Houston for a few more. Now they're back here...and they were at our house for dinner last night. I doubt they remember the decorations...I should ask.
6. Mardi Gras is one of the reasons we moved to Florida. OK...not Mardi Gras per se but the idea that life in another corner of the country would be different from what we had always known growing up in Kansas and that would be a good thing. I was thinking of that earlier in the week as I read a thread of messages on a scrapbooking message board where a woman was lamenting leaving behind everything she knew for her husband's new job in another part of the country. I never lamented...we embraced the idea of a new state, new customs and new adventures. Maybe the fact that Tom and Durlene are here has something to do with it too since they were certain when we bid them goodbye that last morning that we'd never stay. It's been almost 35 years and we're still here. If I were giving that woman on the message board advice, I'd say Go for it!
7. I had no idea when we designed this house how this corner of the kitchen cabinets would be such a great gathering place. Our kitchen is open to the family room and breakfast room, so this end of the cabinets makes the perfect home for hors d'oeuvres and a couple of bottles of wine. People naturally surround it, drifting in to sample food and out to resume conversations. And even when we don't have guests, I notice Wayne leaning on it as he talks to me while I cook or finish up the dishes. It holds cookies at Christmas, dark chocolate Hershey's kisses year-round and my camera except when I move it to the desk so I'll remember to use it. Maybe next time that brilliant idea pops in my mind I'll decide to leave it right where it normally is. Then I might have seven pictures and one story.
beautiful post Brenda! Love your thoughts-slways so spot on. Thank you
Posted by: Diane Standish | January 22, 2012 at 01:01 PM
Great result of Ali's inspiration, and very interesting. I'm looking forward to giving it a try. Glad the gumbo was a big hit!
Posted by: Janet | January 22, 2012 at 05:40 PM
What a great post. Thanks for the link to Ali's newsletter - I follow her blog too, but hadn't realised she sent out a weekly til now!
Posted by: Margot/NZ | January 26, 2012 at 05:11 PM