despite my moodiness

Despite my moodiness, I am happy for Mieko. We were talking about her furniture issues yesterday. And she said I was the first person to tell her that "yes, it's ok to not take the furniture." She only took what she needed: plates, a few knives, utensils, a wok.

And now she has this new empty apartment with the chance to fill it with things she wants in her new life. Friends of hers are excited and are scrambling through craigslist looking for stuff to fill her space. But she's taking it slow and finding each piece and being particular with what comes in. She's at a good point in her life. I'm happy for her.

I remember when I moved into a studio by myself with a dresser and a futon. Lots of bare walls, a couple of plants, one fold up chair. I enjoyed sitting in the space, imagining the things I wanted to decorate with. It's like the first question in feng shui, "what do you want?" And with all the empty corners and little furniture, it meant I could ask for anything. The potential of everything.

Then of course, my parents rang the door, and brought in a trunkload of stuff: microwave oven, knife set, pots and pans, a plant. They were excited too at the potential of everything and wanted to make sure I at least had some essentials.

It's rather difficult to do that now, and I think we have very few opportunities to live in fairly empty spaces. We move into bigger and bigger places just so we have room for more stuff. And we take more and more stuff with us with each move. We fill them up faster than we realize.

I remember taking a walk through the Oakland Museum and being captivated by the white on white pieces and simply enjoying the space of them, yet after a few minutes finding more in that space. Living in the urban land, I sometimes forget to create open space even in the smallest ways, yet still find I'm afraid of it as well, space leaves for an unknown.

Thanks, Mieko! Though she says she hasn't had any "revelations" to write about, doesn't mean she doesn't have any "revelations" to impart.