A Simple Indulgence

I'm terribly fond of the term "urban family". Here in New York, hodge-podged and thrown against millions of strangers, you're often thousands of miles away from your loved ones. Maybe it's the extremes of New York and the isolation it's so easy to feel here in this big city that allow you to create relationships, sometimes very quickly that truly feel like family. Granted, I'm closing in on a decade of Brooklyn living, but the people I've met here and the friendships I've found run so deep they span time. It's such a kick to have people who are not family, who haven't known you your whole life who just 'get' you. Case in point, a couple of weeks ago I was out with a group of such friends when I decided the lull in the conversation provided the perfect moment for me to whip out my new Crate and Barrel Glass Bowls. "Loook at theeeeeeese!!" I sing songed. Everyone oohed and awed at them with me. My BFF picked one up, turned it around, held it to the light and put it down on the table again.

"Amber, I think you were that kid who's cheap toys weren't all that great, but other kids were always jealous that their expensive toys weren't as fun as the toys you had."

Whatever. My toys were awesome!

Everyone chimed in, much like a loud family at a large dinner table, and said they'd run off to Crate and Barrel to buy the same bowls if having them would give them the kind of giddiness it gave me. I've been thinking about this a lot. I've never really noticed it about myself. Maybe you need people who have a family's kind of insight in your life to point certain things out to you. I am wildly happy. I have been known to pinch myself in the middle of a lazy afternoon in Central Park just to make sure I'm still me.

The thing is that I consciously take time to really enjoy as many moments as I can in my day. I don't fly through them without appreciating them. If you're not having the kind of moments in your life that you want, provide them for yourself. Maybe you don't need glass serving bowls with plastic lids in your life, but find out what you do need, and learn to be giddy about the things you already have. This is a skill I'm constantly honing. Three years ago I set this goal to be happy with what I have and to not make every moment a catastrophe.

Now I find myself pleased as punch. The fact is that I love my life I'm thankful I get to be me.

It hasn't been easy. Finding this bliss has been uphill work. I'm a creative and I know most of you are too. An artist's life was never viewed as a stable, balanced, blissful existence. I still fly into wild moments of frustration and I've been known to cry over spilled milk (literally and figuratively) but lately and for a long time I've been mostly happy.

If you need a shot in the arm or you don't know where to start, I strongly suggest you try my afternoon's simple indulgence, a hot cup of fancy herbal tea and a bit of dutch chocolate - then be glad that you did ;)

listening to right this second: "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" -- Cake