Doux Nid

Living in the West, we are blessed with such material bounty even in hard economic times. Our standard of living is one of the highest in the world. Fabulous things in all shapes and sizes exist to satisfy our every want. Because the possibilities are so endless, our appetites for consuming become bottomless. Wanting more and more, we start losing our sense of reverence  for life.  The drive to fill our need to consume overtakes our sense of gratitude.  Too busy acquiring and labeling, we start to look past the people and things in our lives until they disappear. The next acquisition takes all of our attention and focus.  How do we stop taking people and things for granted? How do we come back into balance?

Home is a great way to start noticing the bounty in our lives again. Here are some of my favorite ways to practice reverence:

• Start a gratitude journal. By writing down five things that we are grateful for each day, we focus more on abundance and less on lack in our lives. I think that it is a daily practice that could change our lives and fill that need to consume.  Have fun picking a journal. I chose one that looks great on an accent table near my favorite chair. 
• At your next dinner party, think about putting inexpensive, little gifts at each place setting. It is a great way to practice gratitude and show appreciation, but it looks festive too. Friends love to take home party favors. Hunting for little treasures to give without breaking the bank is so much fun. Be creative.
• Tie beautiful accent ribbons around favorite letters, postcards, and books that friends and family have given. Use these treasured piles on night stands, end tables, and bookshelves to enjoy every day. It is a decorative way to practice gratitude for the effort of others in our lives.

Every now and then go away,
have a little relaxation,
for when you come back
to your work  your judgement will be surer;
since to remain constantly at work
will cause you to lose power of
judgement…

Go some distance away
because the work appears smaller
and more of it can be taken in at a glance,
and a lack of harmony
or proportion
is more readily seen.

Leonardo Da Vinci
(1452-1519)

Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the greatest minds in history, left a prodigious legacy in science, architecture, sculpture, painting, engineering, music, and mathematics. In order to live such a productive life, you would think that Da Vinci worked all the time, but his advice suggests something quite the opposite. To be really creative,  he advocates taking relaxing breaks from work to gain perspective on endeavors. According to Da Vinci, you can see when an aspect of work is out of proportion or lacking harmony by seeing it from afar.

Beautiful interiors work on the same principle. Because we  live with our rooms everyday, we lose perspective. We don’t see when things are out of balance.  Try to step back and evaluate your rooms with fresh eyes. Practice scanning your rooms to judge if the visual weight of objects and color is evenly distributed. Do your rooms seem empty in some places? Does one side of a room seem heavier than the other? Is your accent color for a room used only in one place? By gaining perspective, we can create and maintain balance to live more beautifully.

Design is a process of discovery. In our twenties and thirties, feathering our nests is done at a frenetic pace driven hard by  biological needs and cultural conditioning. We go out into the world trying to build our identities. Fascinating objects, colors, and textures are all around us. It is intoxicating to bring treasures home that we have never possessed before. As time goes by, our nests become full, maybe too full, and buying more stuff is not as fun anymore. As disillusionment sets in, our false identities built through things gradually fall away, and we start feathering our nests based on other ideas such as love, reverence, sharing, and cooperation.  Our homes then begin to serve as a place to nurture ourselves, honor our deepest values, and celebrate the people in our lives.  We discover ourselves through design.