Inspiration: A Prayer by Sarah Teasdale

                 
A Prayer

When I am dying, let me know
That I loved the blowing snow
Although it stung like whips;
That I loved all lovely things

And I tried to take their stings
With gay unembittered lips;
That I loved with all my strength,
To my soul's full depth and length,

Careless if my heart must break,
That I sang as children sing
Fitting tunes to everything,
Loving life for its own sake.

                                                     
-Sarah Teasdale

What a great way to live...enjoying life for what it is.  To experience life's best, we often must endure life's worst.  Loving deeply is one of life's greatest joys, but it comes with the risk of losing love, one of life's most deeply painful experiences.  It's so easy to hold back on investing oneself wholeheartedly for fear of danger or loss or factors we cannot control.  Let us not hold back on living deeply simply because we are afraid.  A full life, complete with sincere love, is worth the risk.

Inspiration: When Death Comes by Mary Oliver

"When Death Comes"

- Mary Oliver 

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

This is one of my favorite poems. While the title may not sound inspiring at first (who wants to think of death?!?), the last bit of the poem encourages us to fully embrace the lives we have. If we do this, we will not be afraid of death or unready to go because we have failed to make the most of what we have been given. Don't just be a visitor to this world. Explore it, experience it, embrace it.

Inspiration: A Philosophy Concerning Stuff

"Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful."
- William Morris

This is a quote I think of often as I work to make my house a home. Having graduated from college and entered married life with little more than a few boxes of memories, a bunch of threadbare fabrics and some cheaply framed pictures, I find myself collecting the pieces of my home slowly but surely.

For the bones of our home, the basic pieces of furniture we plan to use for a very long time, my husband and I try to choose well-made items that are also a good value.

Right before we got married, we selected a beautiful, sturdy bedroom set, one that we will probably use for the rest of our lives. We were living in separate cities at the time. He visited the local furniture store to make the purchase, while I went to the store's website and identified a few favorites from which to choose. We are happy with the purchase, and look forward to using this set for many years to come. (If I could do it again, though, I would have tried to find a suitable set on Craigslist or in the local classifieds, both of which often feature bedroom sets for less than half of the original cost--even those that are only a year or two old!)

Since then, we have added to our home:

• a floor model butterfly-leaf dining table (which can seat up to eight when its center leaf is in place)
• a gently used couch and loveseat set from Craigslist 
• a full-size guest bed and a coffee table from a used furniture store 
• two desks, a coffee table and a chair from Ikea 
• a twin bed and a roll-top desk from my husband's childhood home 
• bedside tables from a local discount store
• decorator tables from Walmart

I tend to analyze (my husband would say overanalyze) purchases for our home because I like to buy for the long haul. Because I am practical above all, I try to make purchases that:

• will last as long as I do (although we still have a few flimsy holdovers from our college and apartment days) 
• are not too "of the moment" (ie. lacking versatility) 
• will be functional and safe even as our family grows
• are a good value (not just a low price or a high-quality piece)
• are a pleasure to use (ergonomically and aesthetically appealing)

What factors are most important to you as you choose items for your home?