Day: June 7, 2011

That’s right, this is more than just a post about my humble front porch.  Which it certainly is, no doubt, i.e., it is a post highlighting the beauty of my front porch which is the portal to my house, nay, my home.  It is the place where friends and family enter to gather into an inner sanctum.

But it is also more than that:  this is a post designed to focus attention to the many small things that make up who we are, and serve to define our personalities, nay, our very beings.  Also, it is to draw focus to the very temporal nature of our existence.  A temporal existence that is cyclical in many ways.  And a cycle of the planteary seasons is one of the most common factors that defines and even determines the quality of our existence.  Winter, spring, summer, and fall are the four main seasons that grace my little spot on the planet, and in each of these seasons, there are certain things within my immediate environment that I may control.  Things, many of which are material objects that I choose to place, replace, be rid of, or wish to surround myself with.

For in the comfort of our material possessions, and in how we choose to acquire them, display them, store them for short periods of time, and then bring them out yet again for utilitarian and artistic pleasures, we are affirming these truths:  that the passage of time may be measured in the many ways and in the many times we choose to arrange or rearrange our immediate environment; that we are only in control of this superficial aspect of our immediate environment, knowing full well that there are a thousand other invisible factors that determine the invisible environment of our minds; and that there is a distinct pleasure to be had in the creation and maintenance of this physical environment.

See for yourself what I mean by this:  this is a view of my front porch.  I celebrated the beauty of my front door the other day by changing the decor on it, i.e., the wreath that adorns it, and today, I am here to continue in the same vein to highlight how I have altered other small things on my front porch that bring me great pleasure in acknowledging the onset of the summer season, and in receiving great joy and comfort in performing these cyclical tasks year after year.  There is something permanent even in the temporal nature of this activity:  the assurance that come next summer, I shall be able to do this all over again, and that this summer I am doing even better what I did last summer!

So, what are these tasks?  Well, in this eleventh year of having bought and lived in this house, I do these tasks every year:

• Give my front porch a good sweeping, including the walls and nooks that have been unattended to all winter long
• Dust out the mat thoroughly
• Wipe down the glass-screen door
• Apply a fresh coat of paint and polyurethane to the bench that sits on the porch (every alternate year, actually!)
• Hang out my “Friends Are Always Welcome” Flag (this year, I got a new pole for it!)
• Replace my door wreath
• Bring out the two hanging baskets and place flowering plants within them.  This year, I have one Petunia, and one Impatiens
• Bring out the Jasmine plant from indoors (this is the one my mother smuggled from India many moons ago)
• Trim the hedge around the pathway that leads up to the porch

So, there you have it!  Seasonal decor is so much more than what it might appear to be.  It is the essence of life itself!  And this is one show that I hope will go on for a long time!