Bigger Might be Better, But Small is Good Enough

I live in a House for One Person, 360 sq ft of richly layered sanctuary.  This house fits me.  Like Goldilocks searching for the perfect chair, I have lived in Too Big houses and once, on a 33ft sailboat, a Too Small house.  This is my Just Right house.

Once upon a time, it was a chicken coop.  Now it has quaintly sloping floors and walls of windows overlooking acres of wetlands, the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound.  I share the space with two cats, numerous spiders and occasional slugs that sneak through the shifting foundation.  Passion Flower vines find their way up interior walls and I don’t mind their bright green tendrils… if only they would blossom!

But I am blossoming here, waking early to sunlit rooms with tiny alcoves.  My writing desk divides the living room in half.  Behind me, an old birch veneer hollow core door that serves as my computer station with niches full of visual candy for my daily inspiration… in front of me, a shelf of poetry books and bits of beach glass gathered from walks along the shores of Mutiny Bay.  I take silence with my morning tea and stare out at patchwork green fields and tall fir trees and I listen as words trickle across the smooth round stones of memories…

The poet sits for hours
staring out the window
at nothing
and everything
until the oustide comes in
until the inside comes out.

 See how the words
leave footprints on the page
how the poet doesn’t stoop
to brush them away
only pauses a moment
then follows…

 

14 Thoughts

  1. Jeanne, I saw a link to your blog on Facebook via Kelly Keith and decided to check it out. I’m working on a project in Houston at present and really miss Whidbey. I loved what you wrote and am looking forward to the next!

    Thanks,
    Mark

    1. Hi Mark,

      Thanks for reading and for your appreciative comments. I have never been to Houston, but I am pretty sure it is NOT WHIDBEY!! If my blog has given you a pleasant taste of home, and perhaps a touch of homesickness, then I feel satisfied.

      Jeanne

  2. Jeanne…just lovely. And a perfect description of your nest…now you need to write about your workshop in the barn! I loved reading this and imagining you tucked away, writing it. Is the wonderful poem your too? Thank you for sending the words & thoughts my way…Francy

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