collecting beautiful things

the happiness project: new desk

At some point during June, I bought a beautiful desk at an estate sale in the neighborhood. It took a little maneuvering, and negotiating with my sister to get her to take my old dresser, but I finally have the desk set up.

Here's the room before the desk - (this is from January, right after I painted & re-arranged)

The purple lamp is leftover from when we moved into the house (it matched the lavender walls). I had since replaced the lamp, but I was doing all of my schoolwork on my bed in the meantime, and Kelsey was always coming in to use the mirror. 

Since coming home, I've put up two Monet prints, re-arranged my bookshelves, and designed my desk to create a good working space. This summer I finally feel like I have a space truly my own, that fits my taste and is works better with my lifestyle. 

Here's the end result: 

the Happiness Project: fun reading

One of the main things that has kept me sane this summer, and kept motivating me to read my school books, is always having something that I am reading simply because I want to. Reading fun books reminds me why I love reading, and keeps my mind engaged and stimulated so that when I do sit down to read Darwin or Melville, I know how to be present with the book. Here's a list of the fun reads I've tackled thus far this summer:

The Little Prince ~ Saint-Exupéry

I re-read this book at the beginning of the summer after finding a beautiful copy at Half Price Books. It's so good. It totally made me cry. And the illustrations are always a winner.
I read this a bit at a time at night, just a chapter here and there when I could stay awake for it. I finished it in a week.

A Grief Observed ~ C.S. Lewis

I've had a tiny paperback copy of this for about two years but never got to it. I was so glad I chose to start my summer with this because it felt like he put words to my own journey with doubt. Interesting, heartbreaking, but fascinating. I went back and re-read sections when I was done.

Bread and Wine ~ Shauna Niequist

I've heard this book recommended by several bloggers whose book recommendations I trust, but I checked it out from the library as a last-resort when the book I wanted was out. I was so glad I did. A memoir on hospitality, community, and food, this book is full of stories that will make you want to cook and have people over. I've still got it sitting on my dresser with post-it notes where I want to copy recipes.

Geography

my head hurts like the dickens

and you are not here.

Tonight leaving work

there was the moon—

huge and hanging low

pale orange and I thought to tell you

but you were not there.

Of course. How could I expect you to be?

It is the hardest because it is

so reasonable

and my mis-starts and missteps

like a child who keeps thinking

the Andes are next to the Himalayas

and crying when she is wrong

because she knows better.

But you, unlike the distant Himalayas,

ought to be near

to share moonrises on the second of June

thunderstorms

and quiet Saturdays

drives at golden hour, the air full

of snowy cottonwood seeds

catching the sun like stars.

(Were there no mountain range between us

I would lie on the floor beside you

murmuring conversation until tired enough

to sleep this headache away.

And your silence would be broken.)

But ever my geography was faulty. 



~j.l.s.

stand with your lover on the ending earth-

stand with your lover on the ending earth- 

and while a(huge which by which huger than 
huge)whoing sea leaps to greenly hurl snow 

suppose we could not love,dear;imagine 

ourselves like living neither nor dead these 
(or many thousand hearts which don’t and dream 
or many million minds which sleep and move) 
blind sands,at pitiless the mercy of 

time time time time time 

-how fortunate are you and i,whose home 
is timelessness:we who have wandered down 
from fragrant mountains of eternal now 

to frolic in such mysteries as birth 
and death a day(or maybe even less)

(e. e. cummings)