When I lived in LA as a divorced 20-something woman, I made friends with a literary agent, the one who publishes Richard North Patterson and discovered David Foster Wallace.  Bonnie was a good friend to me when I was so young and alone.  She recommended a film to me, Babette’s Feast.   I haven’t seen it in at least 20 years, but last night we watched it again.

And we got to this line:

“An artist is never poor.  Throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me the chance to do my very best.”

My God.  How had I forgotten that?  That sums it up perfectly for me.  Here  I am, in a tiny flat in bloody Shanghai China having spent my entire life collecting things, having adventures, studying God and making cool places to live while we do it.  I’ve made a bit of income, but mainly I’ve been blessed to inherit just enough money to be OK.  I just wanted to find beautiful things, in gutters, in bazaars, on beaches.

7 years ago I spent a fortune (for me!) having this website designed so I can have zero traffic and not sell my ten-cent items.  No one sees what I am doing here and almost no one reads these posts.  But every day I just keep listing things I love and for awhile now I have been thinking, “Well.  It’s my Sistine Chapel and if no one ever sees it, at least I made what I think is beautiful.”

That’s enough for me!