City Oases

So, it's confession time. I'm supposed to be cleaning my apartment. First, it needs it. Seoncd, I've got my Frank Sinatra (my cleaning music of choice) going in the background. Third, it's Sunday and that makes a good cleaning day. Fourth, my apartment needs cleaning. Guess what? I'm sitting here writing Pobble Thoughts.

What brought me here was thinking about how much my apartment ~ when clean, anyway ~ is a real oasis for me. My name is on a lease, not a mortgage, and yet it is my home, not just where I live. The Library (my name for the place: when the building was a single family back in the 1800s, the space that is now my apartment was the library. I figure I've got the best ghosts in the place but that's a Thought for another day.) is gorgeous, beautiful, and peaceful. I'm lucky. I enjoy being here.

Which then led to thinking about other places that give me this same relaxing away-from-it-all feeling. My salon, Salon Red. Even before they knew me there, when I walked in, I was comfortable, relaxed. And the people are the best. The Ritz. Not the new one. I'm sure it's nice but it's not The Ritz. The old one, the Grand Dame, that's The Ritz. Go there for tea and the world disappears. A friend of mine used to say that the staff there keeps "it" out ~ whatever "it" happens to be. And they do. They really do. Copley Square. Yes, it can get crowded. Yes, it can be too hot or too cold depending on the season. But there is still something about Copley Square. For sitting, for being, for people watching, for reading, for whatever.

Sometimes we find peaceful places where we expect them. Sometimes we find them where we least expect them. What's important is that we keep our eyes, our minds, and our hearts open so that when a place brings us peace, we welcome it into our hectic, crazy lives and let it sit with us, even just for a little while.

My apartment still needs cleaning so I need to get on that. However, now I have the peace of a welcoming salon, the staff at the Ritz and the beauty of Copley Square ~ along with a good dose of Ol' Blue Eyes ~ to help me get through the crap, to the oasis that can be my home.

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.