August Break | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

Something Old

My great-grandmother’s vase. I don’t come from families who have a lot of antiques, things to hand down from generation to generation, to be inherited. If I were to take this vase to Antiques Roadshow, they’d most likely say it was something mass produced and because of its condition issues (cracks, broken pieces glued back on, parts missing), it’s not worth much money. However, it’s precious to me.

I’ve collected a lot of art from thrift stores, all with a similar aesthetic — botanical, natural, mostly Asian, usually including some flowers and always birds. It wasn’t until at least 10 years after I started collecting that I realized the thing they all had in common, the birds. Every single item had one or two birds. I contemplated why that might be, why I was drawn to that imagery. I think it’s because birds seem fragile, vulnerable, with their soft feathers and mostly tiny bodies, the way most of them communicate through song, and yet they possess the power of flight, for them a simple and fundamental freedom, and for me so utterly impossible.

Taste

Yes, we did already do this prompt once. When I saw it this morning, I checked the list to see if there were other repeats, ones Susannah must have thought big enough to be worth doing twice, but taste was the only one. I figured, “must just be that important.” Then later, I saw her post on both Facebook and Instagram, “So yeah, taste again for the ‪#‎augustbreak2013‬ – that wasn’t an intentional repeat! Just what happens when you put things together too quickly ;)”

Getting ready to go on our walk this morning, I was eating a granola bar. Sam gets very excited about this, both because it’s a sign that we are “getting ready,” and because he knows I’ll share. I put the bar down on the bed while I got on my socks, and Sam waits so patiently for me to break off tiny bits to treat him. He has to work very hard at this, sometimes sitting and staring intently at the bar, and sometimes lying down and doing his best to not look at it at all, waiting for a taste.

Later, back from our walk, I make myself a proper breakfast. It’s one of my favorite tastes, peach pie oatmeal, which is equal parts peach pie and oatmeal. Sam isn’t interested in this taste at all.