Two rights not two wrongs

 

Let me explain. 

I bought my retirement home, studio in a southern France Village. It was on the 4th floor for a 400-year old building. It came with beams, a skylight, fireplace and the original stone wall. At one time it probably have held hay for the animals living on the ground floor. It was perfect.

As a minimalist, I knew I could live in a small place.

Every thing in it was lovingly chosen. Even my dustpan had been hand painted. There wasn't a thing extra.

After retirement and I met the love of my life, it was too small for two. We moved to a larger flat a few steps away.

I had no intention of selling my Nest. My daughter is talking about retiring there. Instead we use it as a guest room for friends or friends of friends. We do not charge. If wood, plaster, tiles could be part of a heart and soul, it would be how I would describe my Nest. 

Artists and writers have worked there. Others have sought solace from whatever was going on in their lives.

We also rent a flat near Geneva. The dish drainer is too small for our needs. 

I said to my husband we should get the wooden one from the Nest (see above) which I had carefully selected. 

"It's metal," he said. He is the one who usually prepares the Nest for guests. I haven't washed dishes there for almost a decade.

"Wood."

"Metal."

"Wood."

"Metal."

Since it would be silly to drive eight hours to check it, I wrote my daughter who had visited there over Christmas.

"Metal," she wrote.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

A couple of years ago a guest had taken down a green shower curtain and replaced it. The curtain color matched a leaf in a handmade ceramic frame bought in Spain. Someone had rearranged the furniture.

I assume someone had exchanged my dish drainer. 

What right does someone have to replace my things? At first I thought of never loaning it again, but there are too many people who I care about and who have enjoyed it. Their pleasure is mine.

I'll admit being OCD to my Nest. I'm not elsewhere...well not too much.

I have to smile. Both my husband and I were right about the dish drainer's material. Maybe when we loan it next time, we'll explain my neurotic feeling toward the Nest and ask them not to remove or change things...or at least if they change them, return them to where they were.