Making the same-old same-old new again

I’m almost through the process of having my entire apartment plastered and repainted room by room.

I dreaded it to put it mildly. After years of benign neglect, it really needed it. But it’s tiring because it’s like moving without going anywhere.

I don’t like to accumulate too much, I like to keep my place neat and I’m normally quite observant. But here in my own home, if I put something down that doesn’t belong where it is, it quickly becomes part of the environment and I can live with and work around it for months.

But as I’ve taken my apartment apart room by room, I’ve discovered some up sides to the process.

I put files I haven’t looked at for years in the recycling.

I cleaned behind furniture – oh my.

And I’ve gotten rid of things I no longer use or want.

At the same time, I’ve taken a new look at what I want to keep. As I put my Italian ceramics back on the wall and fused glass plates I’ve made back on shelves, I’m seeing them in new combinations.

I have less stuff than when I started but I actually feel fuller.

It delights me to see the bowl I bought in Florence juxtaposed with the plate I bought in Asolo. They’re different – the former is traditional, the latter modern -- but their colors tie them together.

 And the ceramic bunch of grapes that hung with the apples and pomegranates on another wall look like they always belonged there. They did -- I just didn’t see it.

Now I want to apply this lesson to projects and issues that have been around for a while.

Step back, clear out what no longer serves, give the individual pieces some breathing room.

And then ask myself

How can I see this matter differently?

Do I want to put the pieces back where they were or can I combine them differently?

What pieces are stronger together than on their own?

What do I have that I can make better use of?

Sometimes the answers are already there, we just can’t see them because we’re so used to looking at things a certain way.