In the tiny rooms of life, we look in on the belongings and evidence of recent people. There are small reading glasses, knitting needles and yarn waiting, a chess game in progress, and a silver tea service.

These Thorne miniature rooms have provided me with many years of fascination. They are perfect, small and beautifully lit with sun warming the hand-made needlepoint tapestry rug. A Victorian sitting room with a decorated Christmas tree and precious gifts for children, a doll, a train and a pair of ice skates. Amazingly enough Victorian era children were just recently included in the festivities of Christmas when prior to this the holidays were celebrated with balls and festivities for adults.

I took my daughters to these rooms when they were little and we looked in on perfect lives and décor. I would then go home and really clean house for a few days but soon we would return to our pile of papers by the phone, shoes in the hall and a stack of books next to the bed. The tableaus of our life never will look like the Thorne miniature rooms, because we live in them.

It was at a recent visit to The Art Institute I realized that on our way to sip some hot cocoa we were zooming past Monet’s Haystacks,  Van Gogh’s bedroom and Georgia O’Keefe’s giant painting of clouds, and I do that with so many things in my life. I am so focused on the ending that I’m missing the stuff in the middle. I’ve been going to Mindfulness Mondays at the museum and we meditate for about 15 minutes and then as a group we look at and discuss one work of art for the remainder of the hour. It has been good for me to slow down and pay attention and focus on one thing, but if you are like me, your mind is racing, oftentimes while meditating. Hmmmm.

Memo to self: Slow down, enjoy the moment, clean house a little and then sit back and “be happy for this moment, this moment is your life”

Omar Khayyam