15 Days of Happiness :: Rearrange Something

Today’s happiness task is closely related to my post about painting something.
Sometimes we get going and the beautiful things in our lives become part of the backdrop.  We love and appreciate them, but because they blend into the landscape of our days we fail to really see them.  When we no longer see them, their power to bring joy is diminished.  We can do this both with people and with things, and when it happens it’s easy to start looking around at other people, other things, and think we need THOSE to be happy.

I caught myself being tempted to think this way recently when I saw this picture in the Wisteria catalog:


I love the bright blues against the white.  The painting, rug, lamps and vase I particularly like, but I don’t really need any of them.

I do have a white living room that I love, so I decided to pull a few things from other places and see how it would turn out.   This is what I did:


I moved a pillow from another room and placed my Water and Sky quilt over the arm of the couch.


I pulled vases from other rooms to make an arrangement I liked, then cut my first peonies of the year.


That was it, but it was enough.  All of a sudden I had a splash of the color I wanted, and doing something different gave me new motivation and pride in having my house look nice.  Sometimes that is just what I need to feel energized and willing to clean.  Rearranging things makes me notice them again, and restores the pleasure I find in them as well.  I didn’t need anything new; I just needed new eyes to see what I already had.

What will you rearrange today?  A room?  A shelf?  Or will you do something far greater, like rearrange a schedule to restore a relationship to it’s proper priority in your life?  Whatever it is, may it bring happiness!

Jennifer