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Thursday 9 December 2010

A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For...............

Yesterday I broke a vase.  Simple little statement, or is  it?

The vase in question was of purple glass, an antique, if anything over a hundred years old is an antique.  It was one of the few things I had kept from the days when my late husband and I spent nearly every weekend either buying or selling antiques.  Not greatly valuable, maybe worth about £70 or £80, but it was, in my view, beautiful.

Wednesday being one of my 'free' days I tend to clean, wash etc., in order to avoid exhaustion on the busier days, and for some reason I decided to wash all the glass on display in the house.  (As opposed to the stuff fillings cupboards and cabinets).  I reached for the vase - on a top shelf of course - knocked a more solid item over which hit the vase and sent it crashing to the ground.

Silence ! followed by a banshee wail of disbelief and then I burst into tears.

Having cried for a good ten minutes I got the dustpan and brush and dropped the late lamented beauty into a bag then into the bin, waiting for collection by the refuse collectors.

Next feeling shaken and wretched, I did what I never do, poured myself a large (very large) whisky and ginger. The first for about 12 months, and swigged it down in about two minutes.

About an hour later, when I could see straight, I looked at the gap where the vase had been and to my amazement, found myself heaving a sigh of relief that there was one less bit of clutter in the house to gather dust.

Every item we bought over a period of thirty years had been, for a time at least, the most beautiful thing we had ever seen.  How then, has it all become just so much tat?  Am I at last developing a sense of proportion so late in life, or perhaps at last what really matters is slowly filtering into my recently whisky-soaked brain.

So many emotions and all in one day, at least life is not too dull while I have the ability to demolish half the house in a moment, and then to laugh at my own antics.

4 comments:

  1. Condolences on the vase, and congratulations on your newly realized liberation!

    And thanks for visiting over at LBT. :)

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  2. Condolences duly (gratefully) noted and the visit to LBT was of course due to the lure of the fabulous cat.

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  3. You're right about us having too much clutter. We had to keep downsizing over the last 15 years, consequently we still have a bit too much, but it is hard to give away the memories that stick to the objects. Maybe a photo would do as a replacement, though I'm not sure. Sorry about the vase, it sounded lovely.

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  4. Just re-reading this two and a half years later and realise I never did reply to you Freda.
    You are so right about clutter, I have a museum-load waiting for the courage to get rid.
    The vase was beautiful, but i have never missed it at all.
    A lesson there I think

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