By Emily Rosen
ERosen424@aol.com
www.emilyrosen424.com
Dear buyers-of-my-house: Soon it will be yours. I walk around – actually, I jog from room to room every day – seeing, as if for the first time, all of its contents, from the furniture to the smallest artifacts. I see 20 years of the imprint of a retired couple – not just ANY retired couple – but now, half of THIS retired couple.
I leave you with exotic sunsets, filtering through trees, reflecting in moving waters, unmatched by any I’ve seen in the most remote corners of the world. I leave you with walls that cannot talk, but, if they could, would reveal the most sacred of life lessons, secrets of living a life of contentment and joy. I leave you with seeds of compromise and balance, and realistic expectations.
I leave you with a kitchen I would like to take with me – highly utilized and productive— the alternate hub of my life. Perhaps, the scents of eggplant and kale, and mushrooms and apple, and cookies are still lingering in the air. (I cook healthy!) And the two stovetops that visitors always wondered about as in … “Why Two?” We bought it that way! And neither was neglected.
And the actual hub of my life — the office (second bedroom) with its built-in 12 ft. desk, the surface of which is hardly visible, suffocated with files and papers and 21st Century technical gadgets and built-in draws and cabinets — and TV nook. Lord! How will I ever sort it all out – and dump most of it? And you will, no doubt, choose to remove it all from the walls!
And the lush, languorous, full-bodied orchids that I attached to a tree in the back, bursting with color and sensuality in May and November, lasting for months, visitors agape at it prodigious splendor…
Of course, the view, wide unobstructed water, ducks, fairway and trees, Anhinga and Ibis in flight, meditative moments stolen from a busy life – the aha moment as you walk through the door and view the lightness that infuses the house, even in gloomy weather.
I will take some of my many hundreds of elephants from the walls, floors, jewelry cases, clothing and show cabinets – my very good luck elephants. But which ones will I “let go?” I will leave one for you to transfer the “good luck” it had given us for so many years.
Every life has its phases, and I am looking forward to the next in mine. I leave you with a happy house filled with brightness and energy, and the fluidity of new experiences. May it continue to exude the joy and love that has emanated from it all these years, for you, as it has for us.
Yours for a smooth closing.
Emily
