It’s been a year…ok, just a bit over a year that I have been scouring the web for fabulous photos and inspirational design ideas for all of us that love visual beauty for our home.
I didn’t stop because I stopped loving the design world-it was the reverse effect. I became entirely enamored with all of the beauty of design and how it integrates into our everyday lives that I found myself falling into more and more adventures…or rather projects, that kept the hours in my day on a tight and rigid schedule.
On the side-I did run. I trained for nearly a year for the NYC marathon. Sadly Hurricane Sandy hit leaving the New York that I love and its surrounding areas struggling to get back to what was normal. On that Sunday that the marathon was to have taken place, I found myself running into Staten Island to help bring supplies and worked to help organize a shelter that was bursting with amazing people doing the same. I felt I did a dent into what was truly needed. This experience reminded me how important a home is and always will be for each of us.
When I see a homeless “person” (and sadly it can be a man or woman with children…) on the street, I think of how lucky I am to have my home and to be able to provide for my family. My home that I always ponder what it needs…what I should do to “fix it up” with this or that. I trust that this desire for always “wanting” is what keeps us feeling human.
There is a middle aged man who sleeps across the street from my building every now and then, here in Manhattan. He sets up a little center stage for himself to encompass his luggage of personal items, and where he will rest his eyes for the night. He always has on a bright orange hat, which is how I know it’s him. Last week I was walking my dog, and I was passing a stretch of dark, heavy garbage bags, layered one on top of the other, about seven feet high. I could see the garbage bags, left out for pick up in the early morning, went on for about 20 feet. As I approached the center of this stench, there was a five foot black leather sofa stuffed in-between the layers of these stacks. Gingerly sitting on the middle seat cushion was the man with the orange hat. I was taken aback, partly because I was horrified for him to be sitting so relaxed in the midst of this odor of garbage, from all the people that lived luxuriously in the building above him, but mostly because I secretly felt impressed he found comfort in the attractive, worn black leather sofa that he perched himself on for the night. We began to talk. He was suddenly the host of his own party. He began to tell me how the “guys” from the building brought him the sofa, that was considered junk by its former owner, so that he could be comfortable for his night time rendezvous with our block. He went on to show me how another kind person brought him a warm coat, fleece, shoes and socks…in orange…because they knew it was his favorite color.
Long sigh. Color never leaves our lives no matter where we are in it…dark greys to energizing greens to soul comfort oranges. Color is our home…Home is truly where the heart is.
I now know that inspiration is everywhere-I want to share it once again.
Thanks for listening-
Best
Suzy
DesignEyez.com 