Lying under a white quilted and scalloped coverlet in a plain room painted grey and pared down to a bed and a cupboard, I surface from a midday siesta ( ah the freedom of no time constraints!), and my eye falls on the one redeeming feature in this bedroom- an old-fashioned almost kitsch-looking kitchen cupboard- of the plastic kind, free-standing in white and pale green.
I am in a simple and perfect setting to be reflecting on where I am at - in the middle of a December day, when the world is bustling around Xmas-decorated shopping malls with carols blaring, and others are holidaying on hot beaches or risking their lives on death-trapping roads- I am lying in this cool room and immersing myself in this book, which takes me right out of my usual surrounds and where I can clearly and suddenly see everything in a different light.
Looking at this rather unexpected and interesting cupboard, I can see that most things are open to interpretation or at least can be seen at a different slant!
How is it that I , right here and now, relish this very moment in time - a strange bedroom with a kitchen cupboard on which I see the bare necessities and this is my take on it.
A large family Bible incongruously lies out of place in the middle ( the white slab to left of hat). To this I have personalised and made it of practical use, by adding my bag ( for lack of any other place to put it), my straw hat - both rather more beige and colourless that I usually opt for. The blue Nivea Nourishing cream - to give a touch of smoothness, the red box contains the perfume I recently acquired after weeks of not having any; two lipsticks being the colourful woman I know myself to be plus three bottles of nail varnish- again in three different colours, a green tube of Sh'Zen for my restless legs- literally and otherwise- and a yellow tube of sunscreen, for the rather vain purpose of preventing age spots on my precious hands, both of which I watch with trepidation as they become slightly knobbly with the onset of arthritis...
I find myself wondering about what is actually really necessary in our full and busy lives? Looking at these articles I am surprised at how it is enough, how it suffices.... ( some might say yes but why three colours of nail varnish? ...and to that I will simply reply why not?)
The bottom line is on this day in December I need nothing more- I am at peace and if you will excuse me now, I shall return to my book - Still Life and Breadcrumbs !!
