keeping what you LOVE right in front of your nose

Fortunately the night-before-last was the coldest we've had all winter.  I say, fortunately because I forgot the tulips I'd bought in the back of my car where they spent the night, completely out of sight and mind, until I got to work yesterday morning.  And remembered my new resolve to have fresh flowers on my desk.

You see, I'm trying to make my environs as beautiful as possible this year, since it is, of course, The Year of Shri.  And since my environs, 40 hours a week, are at my job, the circle of said-shri extends that far.

Without bragging or exaggeration, I can safely say that mine is the most beautiful office space at my job.  There are people who've worked here for years who have not even a scrap of the personal around their work-area.  The whole place, when I first walked in, seemed so dingy and dark, funky in that way that non-profits can be funky -- free furniture, donated "art," sad leggy plants.  But not my space, no way.

From the beginning, I have had thriving plants in my little office which has a window onto the yard where the big trucks and vans of the business park.  And where I sometimes see feral cats skulking about.  I've had photos of my sweethearts, some rocks and seashells, from Day Two on the job, and atop the bookcase, a photo of birds which I still haven't hung a year later, since I'm still not sure where.

But I'm taking it up a notch.  I'm a simple creature, really.  I think we all are.  If I have something beautiful like purple tulips in front of my face all day, I am just happier.  They're pretty, they make my space pretty, they make my mood pretty.

And that's got to be good for everyone.

It's not as though I'm spending quite as much as Sir Elton (something like $460K over a 20-month period).  I think I upped the office-shri for about $6.99 this week, which is, what, the equivalent of two-three cups of coffee.  And well worth it.

Being happy and getting happier takes effort.  It's not hard work, just kind of constant effort, to make the little gestures that bring the happy quotient up.  For me, this week, that's the flowers.  And it's working. Every time I look up from a task, look away from the computer screen, they snag my attention. I am drawn in to their simple exquisite beauty and, bam, into my own: I am right back where I need to be, sitting squarely in the middle of my pretty little life, doing what needs doing to keep the lights on and the heart open.

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