I recently drank the Pinterest Kool-aid and opened up an account. I am officially on the Pinterest bandwagon. Now I had been avoiding doing this ever since it came out for a number of reasons. First and foremost because I was fairly certain that the moment I started I would lose HOURS of time on there . . . and I was absolutely correct. I am a collector. I LOVE collecting things. As a child I had a troll collection. I’m sure at one point I knew the exact count, but all I can remember now is that there were more than 200 of them. Now I collect elephants; figurines, stuffed toys, pictures, etc. I try really hard to limit myself, and they’re still everywhere. I like to think that they blend in pretty well, but if you look . . . EVERYWHERE.
I am also very organized. I once saw a throw pillow that had “A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place” in needlepoint on the front. I wanted to make fun of it with my friends, but I couldn’t because secretly, deep down inside, I totally had a place where it could go. So a website where you can collect things that you like, and organize them into categories speaks to my very soul. And now that I’ve joined, it is everything that I ever hoped it would be.
Then a funny thing happened. I have a board called “Beautiful Pics” where I pin mostly landscape photos that I think are beautiful. Well the other day, I had pinned about ten pictures on there of sunsets when I came upon another one that was pretty, but not breathtaking, and my inner voice actually said, “You should skip that one. After all, it’s not as good as the rest and you’ve already pinned too many today anyway.”
What?!?!? When did that happen? When did I start to internally limit myself? As if there is such a thing as too much beauty. The Pinterest police will come banging on my door because I have pinned too much and that is more beauty than one person has the right to collect. Yes, there is such a thing as having too much of some things. Ice cream for example. If you eat too much ice cream, you’re gonna get sick and you’ll have to buy a whole new wardrobe. So yes, by all means, limit the amount of ice cream you eat. But there is no such thing as too many sunset pictures. There is no such thing as too many pictures of adorable puppies – yes, that’s one of my boards too!
I feel like this is a societal thing. We’re taught that too much of a good thing is bad. Not just physical things, but emotions as well. We’re taught to “play it close to the vest” and that we shouldn’t “wear our hearts on our sleeves.” And quite frankly I call bunk! Why should we hold back? We should be telling the people that we love, not only that we love them, but also why we love them. We should be telling them this early and often!
One of my best friends does this. She regularly tells me how much I mean to her. She regularly points out little things that I do that make her happy and I try to do the same. Guess what? Neither of us is hurt by this practice, nor does it ever get old. Instead, we’ve become confidants and never tire of the other’s company. No subject is too private, no topic too sacred to discuss. It’s amazing, and I wish that all of my relationships could be this way . . . which I guess they can. All I have to do is start telling people what they mean to me. Not in the hopes of reciprocation, but because they should know that my life is better with them around. So dear reader, thank you for making it this far: it means the world to me that you take the time out of your busy day to read my ramblings. I hope that they brighten your day!