“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
~ The Great Gatsby
//Brochu Walker Blouse//Jeans//Tory Burch Bag (similar)//Suede Booties//Cashmere Sweater//
I love this quote, although if you think about it logically, it would make more sense to say that life starts over again in the spring. Spring is the season of renewal. The flowers start to bloom, everything turns green again and the days get longer. But for some reason, there’s just something about fall that makes everything feel new on that first crisp day.
Sweater weather, pumpkin season, a fire in the fireplace, soup on the stove..we start thinking about these things long before the temperature actually changes.
I love imagining that first fire of the season or sitting outside on a cool afternoon reading a book. And, every year, I always want a new sweater to wear with my jeans and boots.
But here’s what I really think…the sweater isn’t the point. The woman I think I will be wearing the sweater is the point.
In my mind, I’m walking the dogs on a crisp morning, making that pot of soup…my house is completely organized with a pumpkin chai candle burning. I’m wearing that new sweater with my favorite jeans and a pair of suede booties. My life somehow feels pulled together and everything feels peaceful.
We’re dreaming of the possibilities, and sometimes we’re shopping for those possibilities.
It’s interesting to think about how much of what we buy is really about the thing itself…and how much is about the life we imagine we’re going to have while we’re wearing or using it.
What exactly are you buying when you put a new sweater in your cart? Maybe clothes have represented possibility at different times throughout your life…the woman going on the trip, the woman going to a fancy party, the woman with somewhere interesting to go, or…the woman who's reinventing herself.
I'm certainly not going to tell you not to buy the sweater because I probably (definitely) bought it too. However, I have become more aware of the difference between wanting the sweater and wanting the feeling attached to having the sweater, but I do think there’s value in the anticipation as well as the purchase.
Sometimes when we really anticipate something, we actually rise to the occasion of our dreams. Because when you think about it, anticipating is dreaming. It’s imagining something that hasn’t happened yet and believing, that it will be wonderful.
Maybe I buy the sweater because I can already see myself wearing it on that crisp morning. But then maybe I actually take the dogs for that long walk. I make the soup. I light the candle or I sit outside with my book and enjoy the beautiful fall day. In some small way, I’ve created that beautiful moment I was imagining.
Maybe sometimes we imagine the life first…and then, without even realizing it, we start creating it.
The sweater didn’t create that life. The anticipation did.
~XOXO Suzanne
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