March 8th, 2011
Star Signs, Exile and Inventing a History…
In last Friday’s post I asked what your favourite things about antiques + thrifted finds are, because I’m a sucker for their stories- but I’m also a sucker for your stories! You had some amazing answers:
LisaJennea said “I am drawn to the “old world” and antiques because I feel that the previous owners have imbued them with a sense of soul. I know that may sound weird, but I am comforted by the fact that the person who owned it before loved it enough to ensure that it traveled well all the way to a place in my life.”
Sarah said “Being a scientist, I find all this stuff absolutely fascinating! I love how people had the same curiosity I did and seeing how they answered questions with much less technology.”
Last week I met one of my favourite finds yet & I had to share it because of its story! I love shiny silver and gold metals, old typography and functional design, so when I saw this little calendar I was really excited.
There were some tape marks on it, and when I flipped it over I found an incredible horoscope that someone had been sure to save…
“New challenges keep you on your toes.
Start looking for a solution at the first sign of a problem.
Life must go on – it is time to emerge from your self-imposed exile.”
I’m so amused and fascinated that someone wanted to save this particular horoscope- and that someone was in a self-imposed exile… and had to really make sure they reminded themselves to get out of their self imposed exile.
What does self imposed exile even mean? Was this someone’s secret, that only they knew this was there? What were they trying to make sure they moved on from? This little calendar had quite a secret life :)
What do you think its story is? Let’s make one up!
Copy this + imagine a little in the comments below:
Owner’s Name:
Gender + Age:
Job:
What challenge in life were they trying to move past?
I’ll add mine in the comments below this morning :)
Oh my gosh, everyone’s is so melodramatic- we could write soap opera’s! Here’s mine :)
Owner’s Name: Mavelle
Gender + Age: 89 year old lady
Job: Claims she used to be a movie star
What challenge in life were they trying to move past?:
Mavelle had been watching close friend at the nursing home, Julia, slowly lose her memory & slip into confusion and sadness. Julie had always been the fun one, working her way through crosswords, laughing and joking with the young nurses, and seeing her change was breaking Mavelle’s heart. One morning Mavelle saw a horoscope that was perfectly Julie. It would shake her up and refocus her, and was charmingly cryptic- like one of the crossword puzzles her friend riddled out every morning. She tried to pick a place for it where it would be close to Julie, but not obvious, around an object she would see everyday. She chose the back of her friend’s desk calendar (long out of date), and taped it there with shaky hands. Mavelle never knew if Julie found it, but it didn’t matter. The horoscope was there with Julie every day keeping her safe, like a secret prayer or a talisman, whispering to Julie in her dreams, imploring her to emerge.
I love this and reading all the comments. I also really love that someone kept the horoscope on the back of the calendar. i need to thrifting.
So sweet of you to quote me, thank you! :)
Owner’s Name: Elizabeth Walker
Gender + Age: Female, 30 years old
Job: Housewife
What challenge in life were they trying to move past?
Elizabeth was struggling with her unfulfilled life and marriage – and the feeling that the life she had chosen for herself was not quite cutting it anymore. She didn’t know exactly what she was missing, but just knew there had to be bigger and better things out there. Sam, her husband, was a nice enough man with a good heart, but she felt no warmth or excitement from him. His inability to express his emotions crippled their relationship, and she could no longer handle it. Shortly after taping this horoscope to her calendar, she gained the courage to leave him and forge her own path in life. This calendar was left behind, but it’s fateful message lives on forever.
Sheryl Blossom was a pretty twenty-something girl who spends her quiet life watching others pass by. Working with the elderly in the evenings she makes their lives more comfortable. They don’t want much conversation as they’ve been talking all their lives. Is there really much left to say? In the mornings after work she wanders the city and watches parents walk their kids to school, business people make the daily drive, shopkeepers open their doors. She dreams of shopping in the stores and walking hand in hand with a daughter but thinks, “It’s not my time.” Then one afternoon she heads into work early feeling they may need her. It’s quiet and one woman, a patient named Emma, sits alone in the sitting room with her hands clasped on tightly around a tattered journal. Faded yet colorful papers jut a precarious angles from the diary. Emma looks up as Sheryl comes closer and simply says, “Please, take this. I’ve watched you and it’s time. Read these pages and you’ll see. I was once like you, waiting for that one moment to set me on fire. You’ll understand and grow and live from this day forward. It will be slow at first, but you’ll see. Go. Buy the paper. Stop and have a cup of coffee. And when you’re ready read this book, it’s yours now.”
Owner’s Name: Martin de Fomta
Age: 19
Occupation: Student at U of W
What challenge in life were they trying to move past? Martin was in his first year of University, on his way to becoming a doctor. Originally from a small town in the middle of nowhere, he was living away from home for the first time. Martin was having a tough time adjusting to ‘the big city’, where he knew no one, and was submersed in school-work for what seemed like 18-20 hours a day, making him even more socially inept than he already thought he was. As his anxieties built around the difficult path in front of him, he considered dropping out of school and going back home, or just dropping out of life altogether. After a particularly rough night of studying and not sleeping, Martin was reading the school’s weekly paper over morning coffee, when he fell upon the horoscope that gave him the drive to stay in school, and continues to inspire his life to this day.
****
i so needed to read this horoscope this morning. i’m a libra and those words are very true for me right now. I think i will be saving this horoscope to inspire myself when i get into my self-imposed islands of exile. You have no idea how much i needed this. thank-you Kyla.
I have absolutely no imagination for this kind of thing, but I LOVE this, Kyla, and I’m really going to enjoy reading everybody’s stories tonight when I get home from work, curled up with a good cup of tea. :)
Interesting!
Owner’s Name: Peter or Paul. Or maybe Harry.
Gender + Age: Male… late 40s
Job: Banker (but like the fancy kind with the big office and lots of control)
What challenge in life were they trying to move past? He seemed to have it all: the wife, the car, the 2.5 kids, the dog, the picket fence house (keep in mind i’m imagining all of this in the 1950s) but he wanted something more out of his life. He was tired of wearing his black rimmed glasses every day, the suits buttoned up to his neck and the Donna Reed wife at home. He wanted to be able to have freedom, to be able to roam, to travel the country rather than be in his corner office and he wasn’t totally sure he could do it and still be “a man.” He thought his wife would laugh at him, leave him, which would devastate him, that he’d be the laughing stock of the neighborhood for quitting, taking his bank roll and traveling the country side to write, photograph, and paint, opening not only himself up to a new world, but also his family.
Marianne Clarence
Female, 68
Retired secretary
Earlier this year (the year of the horoscope) Alice lost the love of her life, James. They married young, having started dating when they were 14. They raised 3 beautiful children, who have gone on to begin families of their own. After James passed, Alice shied away from activities she previously enjoyed. Her garden withered, dust gathered on her old piano, and her cake pans went unused for months. The only thing that brought her comfort was looking at the daily horoscopes; an activity she and James indulged in together each morning over coffee.
But on this day, there was something different. This morning she noticed a single stem growing in her long neglected garden, and as she read the paper and her eyes fell on horoscope she knew that James wanted her to move on, to find peace, and like the single stem in her garden, emerge from her self-imposed exile.
How fun! Are you a Libra? Maybe it’s a sign for YOU! :)
Oh I’m not in exile of any kind right now! Thank goodness I’m a gemini ;)
Owner’s Name: Joseph Merchant
Gender + Age: Male, 45
Job: Joseph has spent his life building a wall up around him, always running from people and challenges. He has finally discovered his dream in life. The down side to that is that it provides new challenges. He starts to run away from his dreams and begins to give up all hope, until he opens up the paper to find his horoscope waiting there. He’s filled with a new sense of hope and knows he will need a constant reminder of that as he pursues his dreams and chooses to not run from the things that are hard: working for his goals, facing the problems of his past, and most importantly: love.
Owner’s Name: Frank Smith
Gender + Age: Male, mid-40’s
Job: A company man, he worked for RCA, writing liner notes for album cover. It’s the mid-50’s and he’s got a wife and two kids…they’ve just moved into a bigger house.
What challenge in life were they trying to move past? Frank landed his job with RCA right out of high school. He had always loved playing music {he played the sax in a jazz band} and couldn’t believe his luck in finding a job with a record label. He didn’t like to talk about it much, because it was a fading dream these days, but he had always wanted to play in a jazz band professionally…have somebody else write the liner notes for HIS album cover. Sally {his wife} would hear nothing of it. They had kids and a house and a car…he had responsibilities that a music career couldn’t take care of. He kept this calendar on his desk…calendar side out for clients to see…horoscope side toward him. He had read it on the train to work one morning and had immediately cut it out and taped it in clear view where he would see it everyday. Maybe…just maybe…he still had a chance.
Owner’s Name: Paula Montgomery
Gender + Age: Female, 37
Job: Hardworking housewife(timeframe: late 1800s early 1900s)
What challenge in life were they trying to move past? She had followed her families and societies wishes and settled down with a man she was never in love with. After seventeen years in a loveless marriage, she was finally admitting to herself that she wasn’t even remotely happy. When she saw this horoscope, it sparked a glimmer of courage within her. She knew that the time was drawing near when she would emerge from this dark life into the light of the life she’d always dreamed of. Soon, she would leave; she would travel the world, and never look back. She placed this horoscope on the back of her calender as a reminder that her time was drawing near…
Owner’s Name:
Anna Marie Swinson
Gender + Age:
female, 21
Job:
Typist / journalist secret part time writer
What challenge in life were they trying to move past?
Having just left home, she had just let loose a bit and she lost all of the beliefs and morals she once held to her heart, realizing for the first time in her life- that she followed it because of those around her- her parents and family and now she has to choose who she is and figure out who she is. She is unveiling herself I guess.
Oh my gosh Paula, I love this! I hope Anna Marie chooses her future wisely :)