I really love the idea of hope chests. I love the idea of collecting beautiful treasures that you’ll use someday, for your wedding, or your home, etc.

When I was a wee-teenager I remember asking my parents for new bedroom linens for Christmas. When they came I didn’t even open them, I saved them for when I had my own bedroom. Sadly we never finished the extra bedroom and I never used the bed linens. Then at some point it had been so long that they weren’t even ‘me’ anymore and that was that… I was never able to really have them.

That was just one of many times that I’ve bought things and then not used them… keeping them until the time was right, or until I had the space for them. Now and then I still get caught in this situation. I’ll see something I really love that I don’t need or can’t use now, but I can definitely see myself having use for it at some point in the future…

But is that really the best way to spend your energy? Or the best place to put your energy? In a possible future that is just in your imagination and might not {probably won’t} happen the way you are picturing anyway?

This is something I struggle with, especially when it comes to the ‘one of a kind’ vintage pieces that if you pass up, might never come around again.

There is the set of six vintage brass framed dining room chairs that need re-upholstering but are ahMAZING, the outdoor rug and palm leaf pillows that will be perfect for our outdoor space {someday}, and just the other day I fell in love with a marble dining table that I seriously considered buying even though I don’t even know if we’ll have an actual dining room in our new place {and it doesn’t really go with the dining room chairs ~ do I just need a house with two dining rooms?!}.

What I’m learning is that it’s fine to grab a one in a million piece that you are in love with, that brings you joy every time you look at it. But not everything is a one in a million can’t-miss-out thing, and it’s also important not to put all of your energy into a future life that isn’t the life you have now. I didn’t buy the marble table, because let’s be real, it’s gonna be a while before I have a dining room that will work with that kind of amazing piece. But I did get the dining room chairs that I can definitely use in our new place and will look amazing.

I’m constantly working on making sure my energy and attention are here, in present time and not off in some imaginary future I’m daydreaming about that isn’t real {something I think us empathic Pisces always struggle with!}.

If I buy something I love, or indulge in something nice, it has to be something I can enjoy now {or in the very near future}. No saving it for an imaginary someday that may or may not happen, or only special occasions. If you’re always accumulating things for the future and aren’t able to have and enjoy them in the now, it’s a great clue to where all of your energy is… and what’s the use of having a ton of stuff that you can’t really enjoy because it only works for your imaginary life and not your actual life?

Are you someone who buys things for ‘someday’, or are you good at bringing things into your life that you can have and enjoy in the present?!