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Writer's pictureJosie Coco

Creating beautiful spaces with love and order

Day 167/366 Days Towards Self-Mastery.


Pockets of beauty can be found and created in every corner of your home.


Yesterday a dear friend visited for the day. What an absolutely fabulous day it was in her company. It is with great love to reflect that our friendship is 3 decades deep.


She was curious about all the changes that had happened in my life, keen to explore the transformation of my home since she had last visited. Particularly keen to see my storeroom shelves, having been my planning team as we struggled through disorderly piles of typical storeroom paraphernalia... linen, Christmas decorations, cleaning products, toilet rolls, cat cages, old frames, boots, suitcases, mops and brooms, and more, searching for something all those years ago.



My pride evaporated by the disorder of the linen on the shelves. It irked me to observe my sloppy approach and I wondered if out of sight really was out of mind, and somewhat forgotten.


This morning Sarah reminds us of the beauty of the linen cupboard of the domestic goddess.

Lavender lined shelves with neatly folded, lace edged linen tied with silk bows in wicker baskets. It's not an experience I have ever had, nor observed. And the mere mention of the concept of domestic goddess has the potential for surfacing passed trauma!


Today I'll be revisiting my linen cupboard and bringing some care and love into that space, and just maybe revisiting the quality of the linen there as well.

The linen cupboard in my family of origin home was perfection. Folded sheets and pillow case in neat stacks on especially tidy shelves. A ruler or measuring tap could account for the accuracy of those piles. Handkerchief stacked in neat columns for a family of 10. Blankets laundered and stored in moth balls in readiness for next winter. Mosquito nets perfectly white after bleaching and sunning and storing in preparation for the coming summer. Piles of tea towels that weren't stuffed in the bottom drawer in the kitchen as mine are. My mothers pride and joy, for me there was little pleasure in the bootcamp that kept that household orderly.


For now I am eternally grateful for my time living alone, having dominion over my home and lifestyle, creating beauty as and when I please.


There's the resonance of that bootcamp surfacing as I consider bringing order to my spaces, somehow recorded in my DNA. That resonance I call conditioning. You could call it acculturation maybe.


Whatever, it's a programme that's hard to shake and even though I don't live my life that way anymore, that software begins to play as I reach for my own style and beauty.




 

Simple Abundance

366 days Towards Self-Mastery


When I considered my New Year's intentions for 2020 I had just one: To allow my heart to love what it loved...and let it lead me. (If not now, then when?)

I've spent months working on integrating my life. To live life more fully with my home life, my interests, my work, my responsibilities, all coming together, all connected. I want to give each the attention that they desire and need, and still have time and energy for the others. That means living and working from the heart.


As I was clearing out my bookshelf over the Christmas break I discovered Simple Abundance. I set it aside to explore it on New Year's Day as I lazed through another delicious day of nothingness. Sarah, the author, says this book is about living in grace. Living in grace I realised, is about Self-Mastery.


My thirst for understanding the human condition has driven me all my life, and hand-in-hand with self-mastery it has been a life-long goal. And seeing as I love to write, that living in grace is about self-mastery, and I love a bit of a challenge, then if I am truly going to let my heart lead, I really don't have any other choice. So scary as it feels, I'm starting out on a daily mission of leaning into the suggestions of this daybook and making a daily post to keep me accountable. If not now, then when?

I'm Josie. You can find out a little more about me here.

Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy: by Sarah Ban Breathnach.

This book is written for the Australian and NZ market because it refers to seasonal changes. It's available on Amazon here if you'd like to follow along.

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