The Things We Choose to Live With

We spend so much of our lives inside rooms that we rarely stop to consider what those rooms are giving back to us.

The things we choose to live with become part of the landscape of our everyday lives. We pass them in the morning. We see them when we come home tired. They sit quietly in the background of conversations, meals, ordinary afternoons, and changing seasons...Over time, we may stop consciously noticing them at all. But I don't think that means they stop affecting us.

Maybe this is why I have never thought of art as simply decoration. There is a difference between filling an empty wall and choosing something you want to live beside. The right piece can remind us of somewhere we've been, something we've felt, or even somewhere inside ourselves we don't want to lose.

I think there is a reason we continually bring pieces of the natural world into our homes. We build with wood and stone. We keep plants near our windows. We collect shells, rocks, branches, pottery, woven fibers and images of landscapes... because even within four walls, some part of us still seems to reach for the earth.

Perhaps our homes can be more than places that shelter us. They can become small landscapes of their own...filled intentionally with textures, objects, colors and stories that make us feel more connected to ourselves and to the world beyond our walls.

So maybe the question isn't simply, What looks good here?

Maybe it's, What do I want to be taking in even when I don't realize I'm doing it? What do I want to see every day? What reminds me of the life I want to be living?

Because the things we surround ourselves with quietly become part of our days...

And our days, eventually, become our lives.

Warmly,

Haley Crabb

Elemental Living