Collecting treasure

November 2, 2014

I want to write but my mind is blank so I will start with what I know. It is 7:23 in the morning and I am sitting at the table freshly showered but have not yet had my tea. The window is open and if I go towards it there is the wind to be felt rushing in. I hear seagulls in the distance.The city is quiet, the wood works factory across the street is silent on Sunday, so there will be no flurry of worker trucks and vans and no beeping.

I have my first swallow of tea. It is good, hot and strong. It wakes up my mouth as it splashes against a sensitive tooth. I see a bird fly across the sky and I see the different levels of clouds drifting towards the sea. It reminds me of flying in over the forth, the water on one side and the landscape on the other, coming to land in Edinburgh in the early morning, around this time. So calm and peaceful, so much potential upon arriving. It’s been a little over 5 weeks.

I have seen so much beauty and I have been in the company of so many lovely people. I have probably done a years worth of activities in a little over a month, well probably not but that is how it feels.

I know I sleep differently here, I don’t wake up at 3 in the morning anymore. I usually sleep from 10/11 at night - 7/8 in the morning.. So, I am definitely catching up on my sleep. I do miss the Arkansas light upon waking and being surrounded by nature but those are just the trade offs in the process.

It is lovely to have someone to eat meals with and I enjoy cooking for Stewart. That has been a joy, our well organized, spice laden kitchen just makes cooking a snap. I am still trying to strike a healthy balance of what and how much to eat. There are so many new things to try and old familiar favorites to have again. I find the days I make a simple meal of roasted vegetables or just have a salad to be comforting as it brings a bit of order to the days where the beer and curry flows and the onion bhajji are too tempting not to eat. I have never lived in a city of this size before and sometimes I feel like a kid in a candy store.

I have carved out a studio space in the bedroom, it is ridiculously tiny but I am determined to make it work. I already have two 12x12” paintings on the go currently and I hope to finish them up later this week. It feels exciting to be working again and getting back to that meditative place that I know makes me a better and happier person. We will see what happens.

Now for a little reportage of recent events: We went to the Royal Botanic Garden at night last Thursday for a light and sound installation throughout the garden. It was mesmerizing, magical and really inspired me. The air felt so good and fresh and it was so exciting to be walking around the garden at night taking in all the beauty. I had learned that this event was going to happen back in August when I was still in Arkansas and I used the idea of being able to come and see it once I got here to motivate me when my energy was low. It was a dream come true. Just unbelievable.

We made our own costumes out of what we had available around the house and went as Twin Peaks to a Halloween party. It was fun to come up with an idea and make it happen together. Always exciting to do creative things as a couple. We laughed a lot while we were making the peaks and even listened to the Twin Peaks soundtrack while we worked. The party was lovely. I am lucky to have such good friends here and a sense of community, it has made moving that much easier.

I just looked at the title of this post and remembered my original idea; treasure! I have been lucky to find some great pieces of vintage beauty for the flat in recent weeks.The universe has been rewarding me for checking in regularly with a few of my favorite charity shops nearby. We found some beautiful blue dishes (10 pieces) from 1914 that have transformed eating into art and have brought me a lot of peace just in the last week. Strange that dishes can do that but they really can. I also scored a red acoustic guitar from a charity shop one morning last week on the way home from signing up with a doctor on the National Health Service (NHS); an important moving milestone worth noting on it’s own but the guitar was a trifle more exciting. I also found a vintage Scottish stag with a thistle brooch and a clipper ship tea caddy yesterday at the Edinburgh flea market.

These treasures are more than just things to me. They are an anchor and give me connection to my new life. I brought so little with me and missed some of my things more than I dared admit. When I see new treasures that can help me to tell my story and ground me here, it is very special. More and more I feel that life is found and created, as is home and now I have a chance to curate a new one.

Things are romantic here, cracked, tarnished and of the sea…