The other day I helped my sister rearrange her shop.
Having 'sister time' has been a rarity for me for a while now, so I was quite very happy indeed when she called and even more happy to have something fun and useful to do with a day off from my work!
It was EXACTLY what the doctor would have prescribed for me at that precise moment; I needed it very badly.
I have desperately been missing something in my life.
For one thing, this is the middle of the Dakota Long Dark. The days are beginning to grow again, but it's still more dark than light at this time of the year.
My work is demanding, physically and emotionally. The drain of it had been depleting my internal resources until my entire life seemed to consist of working and sleeping and trying to remember to eat now and then.
I had, for all intents and purposes, neither time nor inclination for anything else.
And so I answered my sister's call to come over to her shop.
By doing so, by breaking my debilitating pattern of work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep, eat ... I was, without realizing it, taking what may well turn out to be one of the most significant steps of my life.
Such a short little jaunt - who would think it would have such an impact?
But it has.
The very act of stepping out of my own strangling routine was a step in the right direction.
To have that step take me into an immersion of times past (right down to the music, which was from our younger years and we found ourselves singing along) and the longed-for familiar presence of my sister , was both healing and empowering. Surrounded by wonderful pieces from the past and the beautiful creations of my sister's skill with lampwork beads, how could I help but feel better?
'Close to Home', the shop, is about one block from my house, so it is indeed close to home for me.
It's an amazing place, full of treasures and unexpected moments of seeing something and saying, 'Ahhh!' as though you've found something you lost long ago and missed more than you had realized. It doesn't matter if you've never seen the item before in your life - it's the sensation of having found something valuable to you that hits you. 'Ah-HA! THERE you are!' And off you go with your treasure.
The shop is a gift shop, but it's something more than that. It's got antiques; it's got vintage pieces; it's got hand-crafted things of all shapes and sizes.
The place is a veritable treaure trove.
As we spent time rearranging the inventory, it was just plain fun to see it all.
It was also great fun, that sister time.
Even just thinking about it is a joy to me; a big part of that is the thought of getting in a little more 'sister time'.
Because of all the treasures housed in that little shop of hers, my sister is the most valuable of them all.
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