O K.   DONE!     This round of Brightening and Lightening.  OK.   And it's ended like it always does,  having gone through the phase of  how there is SO Much that i SHOULD/COULD do to finally, the point where suddenly …..it's Enough.  And i'm done.  All the thoughts of possibilities just fall, weightlessly like the petals of the Old Apricot's  blossoms.  Drift onto the earth then disappear.  

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The shelves,  well, really,  only one shelf,   and then the floor there.  This is where I crapped out.  The will to be uhhhhh  regular,  normal,  like most other people,  just fell away as if i never imagined it.  Poof as Jude says.  In a single instant it was just gone,  when the instant Before,  i was painting the wall,  or part of the wall, in the kitchen.   I love how that happens.

This little cave place here holds all manner of what remains from a LifeTime of having Stuff.  There's not a lot left.   But there's This Much.   Boxes of photographs, string, beads, tubes of oil paints,  2 sewing machines,  uh…well….stuff.   It's covered with a very nice layer of dust,  which here, is really a kind of sand.  Remembering that i live in Polvadera,  which is Spanish for Nothing But Dust.

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the far end and i did Windex the mirror

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it's like this all the time.  The What Was a rocking chair in front of that corner.  Holding what else? than yet another basket of scraps.

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Something RARE.  THE table.  the only table here.  Which is never used as a table,  as in how people sit at one to eat their meals….as it will be used tomorrow for me and Marti and her husband.  We will eat together here.  and then,  as i just go,  the thread basket,  the needle/pin basket,  the scrap basket will all return and ………

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I remain Totally In Love with my clean and sparkling kitchen window….looking out and looking out because it's Raining and how wonder FULL it is to look out at the Rain World through this CLEAR window.  

 

 

 

 

 

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32 responses to “Pandora’s Shelves”

  1. Liz Avatar

    Every year in the third week of June we go to Avon NC to stay in a house by the sea. And if Polvadera is Spanish for “nothing but dust” then Avon is ummm something that translates to “nothing but salt.” The windows are always less than clear. And so the first shopping list of the week always has Windex on it … for Don … who loves to clean the windows so we can see the sea …

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  2. grace Avatar

    Windex. Don.
    Windows.

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  3. grace Avatar

    Windex.
    there are other things, i suppose that do as well to clean windows. But they don’t SMELL like Windex.
    Windex had a frangrance, an Oder, a Scent. Windes means well, CLEAN. i love Windex

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  4. grace Avatar

    Like i love Tide

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  5. Liz Avatar

    Scent is such a powerful thing … it triggers memory and emotion like nothing else.

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  6. Dana Avatar

    The will to clean falls away like the drifting blossoms of the apricot tree. Very poetic and very familiar. Now your table stands ready to receive guests.

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  7. patriciaspangler47@gmail.com Avatar

    Liz–yes, Avon–yes. site of many family visits to the outer banks. oh, and hasn’t it all changed so much?

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  8. patriciaspangler47@gmail.com Avatar

    sending love and lots more as you gather together

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  9. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I love that grace has “prepared” her home for us but when we step inside, it’s all about the embrace of her and her home and that has little to do with dust, streaky windows and all to do with our eating, talking, laughing, being together.
    Pandora sometimes applies to rental houses and in this one, it definitely applies to several of the windows here because they are double paned and the job was done poorly. As a result, there is a film on some of the windows that can’t be cleaned so looking out of them is less than clear… Favorite look out in this little casita is the glass sliding door in the kitchen that looks out on our backyard/garden/desert and it is always Windexed every Monday and sometimes more if spots are noticed. (For many years I cleaned my house on Saturday, ready for the weekend. Now I like to clean it on Mondays, ready for the week.) When that sliding glass door is clean and our sky is clear, bright and blue, it is a dazzling world.

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  10. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    so very wonderful..enjoy this day..much love

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  11. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Sending friendship BLESSINGS……that you will have have a wonderful visit is not even in question. And that Marti and husband will be going home with garden gold. Some years back I had a friend that would bring me bags of rabbit gold whenever she would clean the pen……oh how my garden grew!!!! She no longer has the rabbits but I hold on to the memory .

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  12. Mo Crow Avatar

    you have a great collection of baskets Grace@

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  13. ² Avatar
    ²

    Enjoy the love will be easy between hart/soul friends
    the youmeus will be celebrate for each of us
    i will ask you
    don’t forget to make a picture !!!!!

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  14. Judith in N. CA Avatar
    Judith in N. CA

    The clean and awaiting rooms will be so full with all our spirits there with the three of you !

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  15. debbie.weaver Avatar

    Love clean windows don’t do mine nearly enough, looking throught the effect through the screen reminds me of tapestry weaving, not sure why.

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  16. Mo Crow Avatar

    Y’know the only friend I really clean up for is my best friend Julie who I have known for nearly 40 years! She’s a Virgo and keeps her beautiful home and wholesale plant nursery clean and perfect with everything in it’s place always… so when I know she’s going to visit I knock myself out cleaning all the windows & all the nooks and crannies, do battle with the dust bunnies and tidy up the garden knowing full well it will never be good enough (Old Man Crow lived with her for ten years and knows best hehe!) but the good thing is she always lets me know to my face and only visits every few years as she lives up the coast hehe!

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  17. saskia Avatar

    i love your space so much

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  18. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    “All the thoughts of possibilities just fall, weightlessly like the petals of the Old Apricot’s blossoms.” Pure wisdom as clear as the glass you cleaned.

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    it is. There’s a beautiful book The Natural History of the Senses
    Diane Ackerman
    Scent. Windex. Tide laundry soap for me. These equal some odd kind of complete Well Being. Safety. that All is Well, no matter all that doesn’t quite seem to be.
    the scent that i call kleenex in ladies purses causes Alert, Caution, a very discreet level of fear. I love thinking, talking about
    Scent. I love Scent. the safe kind and the not so safe. It
    has whole mind movies attached

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar

    and you will see. How we honored you…made a Dana Table
    a HUGE HUGE SMILE

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  21. grace Forrest Avatar

    Yes. and you were Present

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  22. grace Forrest Avatar

    sliding glass doors are Magnificant

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  23. grace Forrest Avatar

    we did. we absolutely DID.

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  24. grace Forrest Avatar

    animal to animal. food eaten to food eaten. it’s Pure and Right

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  25. grace Forrest Avatar

    i do. they are from our Farmer’s Market in New Mex…there is
    some contract, state wide, for them and they are sold as Fund
    Raisers. I love them. Wish i had a whole other ROOM for more,
    but think i am at my limit…but…eeeeeeeeeeee i love them…..

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  26. grace Forrest Avatar

    the love is easy. yes it IS. easy and bright and Excellent

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  27. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. while i waited, i looked and it was very much just OK. just
    very much Ok.

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  28. grace Forrest Avatar

    it does…it so easily could be the format of a weaving…

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  29. grace Forrest Avatar

    when is Virgo? September?
    My cleaning thing has nothing really to do with who is coming.
    Has more to do with living Alone and being able to IGNORE so much
    for so long, because there is no one to notice. But then
    i get an opportunity to NOTICE and…I NOTICE and i CLEAN and i
    LOVE IT. This evening, after all is said and done, here i am, in
    a LIGHT space…. i am floating. And i always think, i will
    keep this UP. I will do this on a more regular basis…but then
    i don’t. Will I EVER? Who knows, but i DO love how it FEELS

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  30. grace Forrest Avatar

    Thank you for saying this

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  31. grace Forrest Avatar

    just like that. how those petals fall. weightlessly. just fall. no
    nothing. just falling.

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  32. Mo Crow Avatar

    Virgo is from late August to the September Equinox, the opposite sign to Pisces, the earth sign that deals with the working out of things in the world with clarity, understanding & such big heart. So many of the best girlfriends all my life have been Virgos & they always know what to do when I haven’t a clue!
    & re cleaning the house… the other time I go flat out to make the place immaculate is when the real estate agent does a house inspection and guess what? I just got the letter… they are coming to have a look next month on April 28th! It will need a good 3 weeks doing a few hours each day, it’s been a few years since the last visit, must be in the stars, you have inspired me!

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