Note to self

My dear Melanie,

I have been meaning to ask you this since you accepted a job in another town and decided to move...why, oh why, have you purchased so much stuff in your life? Why, oh why, haven't you cleaned out under your bed for a number of years, or scrubbed under the bathtub, or dusted the walls? Because now, you are in a cleaning and packing...bad dream (the kind where you feel like you are suffocating under water)...for lack of a better term.

I know, I know...retail therapy can be so satisfying. And who wants to crawl around on a floor with a vacuum on a weekend? But...now you are paying the price. Yes, every item of clothing you have is really cute and you try to wear each one...your 25 pairs of shoes cover all seasons, even the pairs you found after 2 years under your bed...you can never resist buying that cute pair of earrings...and what is one more book, right?

It all adds up, my dear, into stuff, stuff, stuff. You should consider what you are contributing to the landfill right now. Your ecoprint, my friend, is a dark shade of gray...not green.

This is not a note to shame you...rather, remind you to put things in perspective...

You have amassed over your lifespan a pretty remarkable genre of books, items, and clothing with which you feel kindred. The English tea set from Aunt Kakie. The Parisian painting in your dining room. Every book Tim O'Brien ever wrote. Those earrings your friend made and the ones from Santa Fe. Use those items, my friend, and don't be seduced by those Crate and Barrel advertisements, a trip to 5 Green Boxes, or a saunter into Anthropologie. Your style is already among the things you own, so use them, wear them, and entertain in and with them proudly. And remember, your shine from the inside is what matters most, not all the stuff that surrounds it.

Yours truly,

Your dear Melanie