Confession Time

In passing conversation this week, a distant friend told me that mentions of the Cottage always read so cozy and sweet. I asked them what that means to them, and they said they remembered not only the energy of another home where they had visited, but how well-kept and neat my house always seemed.

Just in case I have lead you for a merry dance down the path of false impressions, I present to you the current state of the Cottage kitchen.

The re-do meant giving up the storage offered by the china cabinet and the baker's rack, but once the new cabinet and shelves are finished they will allow for a complete and hopefully (nearly) final merging of three households' worth of kitchen goods. Until then, the kitchen will be in varying stages of distress and inconvenience. I can deal with that, and I work hard to make it liveable for my housemates.
I prefer to live in a well-organized home; a place for everything and everything in its place. Clutter messes with my head and energy and requires extra work to keep them both balanced. Merging households has been a tender process taking place over an extended period of time, all the while understanding that grief, sentiment, and even lifetime habits are deeply personal reasons for someone to hold onto material goods. Anyone who has ever had someone else throw away their belongings or tell them they cannot have something they want should certainly be able to understand this. We have been fortunate, I think, that while the Cottage does not offer much actual storage space, it has offered space for things to be held until each of us has been ready to let go of what is no longer needed or wanted. Life happens. If you are able to manage your home so that everything is tidy and neat, and that makes you happy, then hooray for you! But we have to be able to *live* where we live, and sometimes that just isn't Reel or TikTok or magazine pretty. Wait a minute...do you hear that? That's the sound of life going on even though last night's dishes are still in the sink and the living room floor has disappeared. Don't judge yourself or anyone else based on the snapshots you see on social media. Actually, don't judge, period. Life is sweeter that way. Much love from Bear Path Cottage.