Lofty ideas

My new office is uplifting.

Today I was up lifting boxes of files. And down carrying empty boxes. I’ve claimed the loft in our rental house for my office – and what an office it is.

A skylight illuminates the room and frames blue sky with the highest tips of leafy branches.

To my right, a large window offers a treehouse view into the woods. Bright, airy, the space also has a warm solidity from the long wooden desk and wooden bookshelves.

Architecture as inspiration.

I like being up high.

When I’m in the loft, it seems easier to put everything else aside and focus on what I am there to do – photos, writing, business, or just thinking.

I can see down into the living room and the sunroom, so it’s easy to wave at Tom, or see if he’s napping, or call down to him with a question. But since I’m physically removed from him, I’m not caught up in his needs.

I’m above it all.

It’s been six weeks since the tree fell on our house and 10 weeks since I last was settled in my own home office. In this time since vacation, Tom’s stroke, and the house packout, my office has been a moving improvisation.

I’ve written on my iPad while Tom was in therapy, I’ve worked on documents using Tom’s computer at the condo, I’ve borrowed Sara’s laptop when I had an urgent deadline.

Now I finally have a space.

It’s such a relief to know where my files and paperwork are, where my computer is, where my photos are, where my stapler and notebooks and pens are. A place for everything and everything in its place.

As I sat in my office chair looking out, I felt I could breathe better.

My mind calmed down and immediately I feel more creative. Came up with a new concept for a glass sculpture, jotted down new thoughts about where to take my writing.

This is what they mean by lofty ideas.

Today’s penny is a 2013. That’s when I set up my home office in a configuration where I thought it would be great to have a curtain between my art space and my office. It wasn’t.