New Office

I love my new office!

One time in my journaling group we wrote about our dream office. At that time I didn’t even have one, so my writing was pure fantasy. I wrote a description of a working space that had lots of book shelves, lots of color, and lots of personally significant mementos as the decorations.

When it was finally time for me to get my very own office, the dream work had already been done. So when my sister, my personal decorator, asked me what was important to me to have in my office, I knew exactly what I wanted. The problem was that we had an odd-shaped space and it was too small for all of my books. When it got right down to making decisions, I wasn’t as clear as I had thought I was – somehow there was something missing between fantasy and reality.

Fortunately my sister knew just how to bridge the gap. She asked me all sorts of strange questions like what I wanted behind me when working at the computer, and what would I want to see out of my peripheral vision. And here’s the key: she listened to my answers! She has this amazing ability to translate words into four dimensional space. I say “four dimensions” because in all of her interior creations, she includes an element of atmosphere that hums a warm, positive melody and breathes in unison with her clients.

We worked with a very small budget and figured out how to use what I already had. She helped me discern what really mattered to me and what didn’t so we weeded out the less important stuff and revamped the stuff I wanted to keep. She also helped me figure out how to put things away without that terrible anxiety of “out-of-sight-out-of-mind”.

So now I have my dream office and while it doesn’t look like the visions I first had in my head, it is better than I ever imagined possible. Anyone who knows me walks into this space and is amazed by how totally “me” it is.

The walls are three different colors – watermelon, modern Japanese emerald, and sky – and the floor is ocean blue. A peg board, cork board and chalk board provide visual space for immediately relevant items and a pink filing cabinet stores everything else. My dad’s old book shelves, cabinets, and desk offer sentimentality, psychic energy (steady encouragement), and practical use. Other pieces of furniture in the room are whimsical pieces I’ve painted at other times in my life. Everywhere there are pens, paper, office supplies, personal pictures, pieces of art painted by loved ones and given to me as a gift, open counter tops for spreading out projects, and counter-top files for on-going projects.

Colorful, whimsical, eclectic, the space calls to me every morning and inspires productivity. The ancestors are alive in that space – I can feel my dad’s smile on me and I can hear his steady encouragement. My sister cheers me on even when she’s not physically present. God is in this space – a space I can call my own; a space where I can finally do what I was called to do! I am alive in my new office because the space itself is alive.

Oh yes, I love my new office!