Everywhere and Nowhere

Several months ago I signed up with a website that lists estate sales not only in my area but in other areas of the country. Estate Sales is a great free service that will notify you of estate sales in your town or you can expand your search to include nearby cities. They give you the dates and the address of the sale and also include pictures so you can easily decide if it's a sale you want to visit or to skip.
While looking through the photos of this coming weekend's sale in my town I decided that I would skip it. What I did notice though was a woman's life opened up and displayed before my eyes. She has passed away yet her life was there on display for all to see. She liked to quilt. She had all sorts of quilt patterns and there was an unfinished quilt top. She was a neat person. Her shoes were all carefully placed in the original boxes never to be worn by her again. A winter coat with a fake fur collar hung on display. I could imagine her wearing it to church on a cold winter Sunday morning in this church going town.

She was everywhere yet she was also nowhere. Do you ever notice that feeling when you walk through an antique shop? Everywhere there are dishes, trinkets, furniture and books that were once loved and used by someone.

How many times were the drawers of this dresser opened by it's owner? What did the owner of this dresser look like?

Do the vibrations of a heart become attached to a beloved piece of furniture the way one's DNA remains on an envelope that has been licked by the sender?

Do the vibrations of sound and movement live on in a recovered upholstered bench? Sounds of laughter and tears that are permanently etched in the fibers of the batting and into the wood of it's legs. Vibrations that no amount of paint or new fabric can cover?

Have you ever looked through an old family photo album and sensed the essence of the loved ones who have passed? Loved ones who are nowhere yet everywhere?

Sometimes I find a vintage book in a shop and when I open the cover there is a note written inside for it's recipient. Happy Birthday wishes or Merry Christmas to one loved one from another. If I pause very quietly over those handwritten words on old faded and yellowed pages, I can almost feel the love that was meant for that book's recipient.

The other night I was taking Bentley on his nightly walk and I looked up at the very clear and star filled sky. The same stars that looked down upon loved ones who have now past. Loved ones who were suddenly here with us yet nowhere.

Just some random musings on a cold and rainy day.
Big Texas Hugs, Susan and Bentley