These are a few of my favorite things…

I do not usually admit that I am at all materialistic. I’ve never thought of myself in that way. I don’t crave expensive jewelry or fancy cars, but I am often amazed by the sheer volume of STUFF! we have. Where did everything come from? Did we really buy all of this one item, one dollar at a time?

This is a bit of a sensitive subject for me because as a child I was the family ‘pack rat’ whose bedroom walls were covered with pictures and quotes and art work, etc. Also, my grandmother was a bit of a hoarder, notorious for her overstuffed “sewing room” and a lifetime collection of butter tubs.

Anyway, I’ve been cleaning out my ‘home office’ this week, which is really an ever-expanding corner of my bedroom. (We have an office downstairs, but I prefer to write here for some reason.) And I’ve observed that I have an attachment to odd things that symbolize (in my mind) something else, such as…

…a small faceless rag doll. When I look at it sitting on a shelf in my bookcase, I remember being 12 and riding my bicycle down a curvy, tree-lined street past lovely homes on a beautiful summer day to buy it at a gift shop in Prairie Village, Kansas. It’s a pleasant memory of early independence, I guess.

DOLL = PEACE, FREEDOM

…a cardboard puzzle/castle that was given away as the prize in a Wendy’s children’s meal several years ago. I liked it so much that when my daughter had assembled it and was ready to toss it, I decided to save it in my room, where it occupies a prominent place. It makes me think of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. Now put the foundations under them.”

CASTLE = DREAMS

…a hideously ugly troll doll I received as a gift from the Rotary Club of Gjol, Denmark, where the trolls are made. It has orange eyes, orange pants, and thick, wild black hair.

TROLL = DANISH FRIENDSHIP

…gnomes – don’t worry, I only have three, and one is just a resin garden gnome I bought for myself several years ago, unaware that my husband had already bought a Travelocity Gnome for me online. (I think he is adorable! Both Scott and the gnome.) Then I bought a small laughing gnome to help me remember to keep a sense of humor about things.

TRAVELOCITY GNOME = SEE THE WORLD
LAUGHING GNOME = LAUGH

…an extremely kitschy, gilded, rhinestone-studded porcelain cow. Scott brought it back from a business trip knowing that it was the most ridiculous thing he could find (also knowing that I love cows.)

KITSCHY COW = LOVE

…my Shakespeare bobble-head. No explanation necessary.

SHAKESPEARE BOBBLE-HEAD = WRITE!

…a toadstool fairy cottage. I felt silly buying it, though it was very inexpensive, because what am I going to DO with it? Where am I going to put it? I don’t know the answer to either question. I just fell in love with it and had to have it because it excited my imagination.

TOADSTOOL COTTAGE = IMAGINATION

If all of these things were to be destroyed or stolen (which is extremely difficult to imagine), I would not be very distressed, but I like having them around, so I guess things are more important to me than I thought.