I'm entering my 43 years with grace. There is something that I just realized in 2022. In other posts, I may have written something about it before; it is crazy how fast life goes. Suddenly, against your will, you see that you are not as young as you believe and need to start making real-life decisions. In so many ways is a significant step, but nonetheless, scary. It takes more time to sink in when you are single and childless.
Welcome to my blog, "Kitchen and letters."
Yes, I'm grateful for my health and the health of everyone around me. For the new people in my life, and more thankful for those who are not( still alive, but not friends with), I never give advice, but if I can give only one: it is always to be grateful. So, I'm happy for everything, even the curve balls that life has sent me. This 2023 brings me a new fascinating me; I'm looking forward to other things I must discover. I recently found one constant in my life, more than food, more than photography, and writing is the passion and interest to learn to communicate better. There will be something soon about this subject. I'm so passionate about it that now I see it everywhere and reflect on things when I discover new ways of seeing.
Part of growing is constant change, as we know. We get and lose stuff, sell it, and figure things out inside out. We start from our side, and at the same time, we start arranging our house/apartment or the space we live. We move our boxes around. We carry what we really need and, like, what we cherish. That is what moves with us.
I talk to friends about the things that make us happy now, things like blenders, vacuum cleaners, stoves, in other words: home appliances. It sounds crazy, right? But it is true. Home appliances are on our wish list! Those appliances make us happy and save us time. It feels so good to have a clean house, a nicely cooked meal with devices that work and will last. Strangely, machines that make us happy are as simple as making us as we have a home, even when we are single, especially when we are single.
Is different for all of us; getting a vacuum cleaner and a washing machine was the line for me between being a "Ms" and a "Mr" and an adult. Even for guys, it must be similar. For a friend, getting a blender is what says, " I'm a Ms. now!"
Yesterday, I received my washing machine. I hold into my dirty laundry for a month! Waiting for my machine to arrive, I almost went crazy! Seriously. But I didn't. I have been washing nonstop for a day. I forgot how freshly washed laundry smelled! I remember the first time I noticed the importance of it. I was living in London and flew one summer to Mexico for a visit. When I returned to London, my laundry was washed in Mexico. Sundried and washed with soap from my teenage years made me wonder how a simple thing like that could take me back home when needed. Later, I saw a scene in a movie about the English cellist Jaqueline du Pre. She was traveling all over the world, and she was sending her dirty laundry by post. The mother was annoyed and did not understand why she was doing that.
In a later scene, you can see her grabbing her clean laundry and smelling it! She was missing home, and it was the only smell that could take her back. Sometimes small things like this help us keep going. In the past months, I have bought several home appliances that call out "Ms." I am getting older, and it's clear that my priorities have changed. However, nothing shouts out "Ms" as a washing machine. I always believed that a stove had more weight in a home, and it does, but it is a different way. There is a saying in Spanish, " la ropa sucia se lava en casa" To literally translate this is: wash your dirty laundry at home. It does not mean that literally. But today, that is how I understood it. As I put my first load of laundry I have been holding for weeks, I look at the little patio with my clothes hanging and think, this is home now! There was something about it, the steadiness of it, the smell, the fact that I was going it by myself. It was not the first time I had washed my clothes, but it was the first time I noticed how this is also part of loving and caring for what is happening now.
And just like that, a home is being born, the same way we are formed inside out. Our homes are being delivered, little by little, step by step, alone or with someone, but there are there, waiting for us. We keep moving, working hard to get our comfort. It happens to most of us; for some of us, some things are more important than others, but most will agree that having essential appliances is a necessity, not a luxury. Our lists might grow or change, but we need the basics. Similar to what we find in someone's fridge. More about that later.
Thank you for reading me
xoxo
Iliana Lanuza
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