Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Je besoin les nuages OR The burning house.

Je besoin les nuages. Roughly translated (or less than roughly according to my yoga teacher) I need the clouds. Living in Vancouver, and just living life, this is so true. We talk so much about seeking light, seeking shiny happiness but sometimes we forget that we need the dark as well. We need the valleys to recognize the peaks, we need the clouds to remind us of the brilliant sun and not to waste its precious days. We also need clouds because they bring rain (and snow) and wash away the dirt and grit. It is the cloudy days that provide us with the opportunity to snuggle under a blanket and read a good book or watch that movie we have been dying to see. I need the clouds.


This evening I came across a blog. The Burning House. The premise is "If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It's a conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question."


This idea has plagued me since I was a child and packed a backpack full of the things I could not bear to lose in a fire. Just in case. I think this idea is a beautiful one. If you had to pare your life down to only what you could hold in your arms what would it look like. How simply would you live holding what you value most with your own two hands? I wrote a month or so back at the wonder I was in that my whole world fit in a station wagon. This is the next level. How would I define myself with what I would save. This comes back to the idea of needing clouds. The thought of such a loss as a fire is not one we often like to think about, or at least I don't. But the idea of searching through our values and what we identify with is a beautiful process. I am going to think on this but I can say for sure I would save these:


- My Rebel Xsi
- My little point and shoot
- This little red computer filled with my images and my words
- My Molskine journal
- My cowboy hat - I am a prairie girl at heart.


... What would you save from a burning house?





1 comment:

  1. Not to get all geeky, but you may also want to consider an online backup service in case your little red laptop gets lost or damaged..

    http://mozy.com/home/pricing/

    ReplyDelete