We are connected to the world both by the people we spend time with (now strangely distanced), and by the objects we have chosen to bring into our lives. I recently came across a piece of writing that chimed made me stop and think about the relationship we have with the objects we love and that we source at New Brewery Arts.
‘Our lives are full of things. Disposable distractions, stuff you buy but do not cherish, own yet never love. Thrown away in weeks rather than passed on for generations. Perhaps things will be different now. Wiser choices made with greater care. After all, if the fewer things you own always excite you, would you really miss the many that never could?’
I’d like to suggest something. While we are on lock-down, with few opportunities for social interaction with people, we could focus instead on the objects with us in our homes, the things that bring comfort and joy, the artefacts we cherish and love. So, take a look around you right now, ask yourself what are the things in your home that you love? Where are they from, who made them and just what is the connection between you and it? What’s the story behind them?
my perfect coffee mug
For me there are many such objects that I feel connected to; my coffee mug – from Muchelney Pottery – without it my first coffee of the day is simply off balance, there is the welsh wool sofa blanket that my husband and I chose together as newlyweds two decades ago - it’s like a hug, yesterday I used a little pottery dish thrown by my daughter when she was seven – its lumpy and chipped but I love it because she made it. These objects are special, they connect me to the world, to the people I love and to moments in my life. And right now, on lock-down, these connections are amplified, my world has shrunk down to my home and it’s more important to me than ever that the things I own excite me and mean something to me.
I hope you too are safely at home, surrounded by the things that you love, objects that mean something special to you. I hope that you use them and enjoy using them. These weeks of lock-down are an opportunity for us to get closer to these special objects, to appreciate them once again, to remember why we cherish them and how we love them. And when lock-down lifts, I hope that we have learnt to value the ‘things’ in our lives, and as we start to bring things into our homes again we remember this time and we make ‘wiser choices made with greater care’.
beth@newbreweryarts.org.uk