Ways to de-stress

I was away on the weekend and a few of the ladies in the group I was with, went into the little seaside town of Dunsborough for some shopping.  Its always fun shopping when you are on holiday - you have the time to spare to just browse and you feel you have to buy a souvenir (or two).  The ladies I was shopping with are both CEO's of their own companies, highly successful and highly driven women.  To them, retail therapy was just that - therapy.  To me, the shopping part was a feathering of the nest and not necessarily therapeutic.

I did find a treasure, a white linen (real linen!) table cloth and matching napkins.  I clutched it tightly as I waited at the counter to pay, I have been looking for this kind of quality for ages, and here it was in a little coastal town shop called The Lemon Tree.  One of the ladies I was with, older and wiser than me,  smiled at me and said you know you will have to iron those all the time to make them look nice!  I smiled back and said, yes I know - I actually love ironing napery and linens.  The shop keeper and this lady exchanged knowing glances. I confirmed to her how mad I am by going on to add, that I also love to polish silver - its my form of therapy. 

There are a number of reasons why I love this basic of all tasks: 

• I like to do things that take me to another quieter, less hurried era.
• Polishing silver reminds me of when I was a little girl and I sat at my Grandmothers table and polished her (that is now mine) silver
• Making a neat pile of perfectly ironed and pressed linen truly makes me smile
• I get a huge sense of satisfaction from making something that looks drab and dreary into something that sparkles and shines
• I like to look at my silver and pressed linen and feel I am ready for company at any time (even if the loo is dirty and the floor needs washing, at least I have wrinkle free napkins!)
• I like to care for my treasured things

It gives me a huge sense of satisfaction to turn this ....

into this ...

So there I sit at the dining table, clothes and Silvio at the ready, and while I watch and listen to TV I set about polishing away the blackness to reveal the shiny, beautiful silver.

Now who could day this wasn't satisfying work?