Need to be Refreshed The need to be refreshed doesn't always wait for the weekend, or for an annual summer vacation. And even if it does, there are times when money just isn't available for a get-away. Sometimes the soul and the pocket book must be reconciled in ways requiring real ingenuity, when want of funds looks to the weary mind and heart a great deal like a windowless wall. Such are the times when home must serve as get-away, when home must be vacation as well as residence. In fact, there really isn't enough money to decorate for the neighbors or for anyone who isn't part of the household.
Neighbors are good people, and part of one's household in important ways.
So are the friends, extended family members, and visitors who drop by, but the fact is they drop by, they don't live there. Decorating for them, particularly when funds are scarce, is more than a little like treating a house as a stage facing everyone but the occupants. Such an approach to decorating tends to maroon family members in the thin strip of living conditions behind the scenery, exposed only to the plywood backs and 2x4 props of daily life. Daily life is stark enough, regardless of how much beauty we can bring to it. If anything in life needs a restorative setting in which to occur, it is daily life.