Describe my home study - ten minutes - go:
The cats settle in, Mimi climbs into the basket near my feet, curls into a ball and falls asleep. It is a large African basket, which I had planned to use for waste paper right next to my desk. I have never been able to use it for that because Mimi has chosen it as her favorite spot to hide away and sleep. Oscar raises his head from the cushion that Tom brought for me from Brussels many years ago. Oscar's favorite place to sleep is on that cushion that lays upon my rocking chair. The chair that the university child care center staff gave me when I left for Philadelphia. As I look around my study I notice all sorts of treasures that I have received over the years. They may not be worth much in terms of monies. But each one has some special meaning for me. On the window sill the violets are blooming. One of them was half dead when a colleague gave it to me last May. She told me that if anyone could bring it back to life I could. Now it has grown new leaves and its fuchsia colored flowers bloom tall and strong in the sunlight as it streams through the windows. When one of the leaves fell off as I brought the plant up from my car, I planted it in a separate clay pot and attended to it daily with water and softly spoken words. It too has grown baby, fuchsia flowers that bloom through the new, fresh, fleshy leaves. On the wall behind and above my computer are photographs and sayings - some postcards that friends have sent me over the years - others are sayings like the one my therapist in Buffalo gave to me when we parted asI left for Philadelphia. I sigh because I realize how many times I have parted from people I thought I could never live without. Too many times to count perhaps. For each time it hurt - always a little more than the last time, although now I know that I will survive each parting. Just as others will survive without me. I wonder what will happen to all my nick knacks when I die. They will not have the same meaning for those cleaning up my room. They won't know how each picture, plant, figurine, Buddha, or basket propped me up and supported me through long hours as I sat at my desk typing a blog post or writing by hand in my journal. I close my eyes realizing my ten minutes are up.
Cats are fast asleep - calm and warm. Their presence has warmed me too in the writing of this piece.
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