Things that make you feel rich - NOT money

[calmloki]

If you want to post pictures of your friends or family that's fine, but thinking more of the little bits of opulence that just make you feel like, daaamn, this feels goooood.

Yesterday and today and for the next few days we are unrolling and hanging our rugs out in the sun to reacquaint ourselves with them and to keep the moth larvae at bay. For several years oriental rugs were our primary self-allowed vice and we did indulge. a bunch.. Sat up there on the deck surrounded by the rugs and talking about them with the gal - where we got them, color, drawing, whether we like them or love them and why and it just felt good. They are pretty much all old and beat-up, but they are also real. Maybe it felt like being in an adult version of the blanket caves I built as a kid.

So what does it for you? a great wristwatch? a special car? a surfboard crafted by the local surf legend?

[73ss454]

Man, do you live in Turkey?

I feel rich when I see everyone going to work. Sorry, I know you said things but I do love watching people rushing to work. (heh)
If I'm up that early.

[W2R]

You have some lovely rugs! I have a few too, as well as some cheap but carefully selected sculptures and paintings. Being surrounded by beauty, or what is beautiful to me, anyway, makes me feel rich. Which, as you point out, does not have much to do with money.

It helps to be nearsighted!

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R Being surrounded by beauty, or what is beautiful to me, anyway, makes me feel rich.

Local singer Danny Couch had a big hit a few years back, "Have You Seen These Islands?" including the line "This is aloha..."

Every time I see the sun rise over the Ko'olau and set over the Waianae I think "This is aloha, baby."

For some strange reason I feel rich when our papaya trees bear fruit. This year we're gonna get about 150 pounds of richness dumped on our heads.

[FIREd]

I don't need to own a lot of things. But being able to surround myself with a few high quality items makes me feel rich.

[calmloki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R It helps to be nearsighted!

I like our unrepaired rugs more than the few we have that have been repaired. The gal has repaired sides and edges and done some field repair - it's a huge amount of work and no matter how good the repair it is visible - these are old rugs and the dyes are variegated and have changed colors over time. She will retwist strands of different color yarns to get the right color blend for knotting, but then there is the wool texture, the twist of the yarn - suffice it to say, repairs can be spotted.

My mind's eye, however, does amazing repair work and those holes and tatters just become insignificant or get incorporated into the experience of the rug. I imagine the desk and the chair that made a tear, the loose warp threads that created a wrinkle that later wore, the maid with the new Hoover that destroyed the ends. The wear gives the rug character and a back story. It does help to be nearsighted!

[Alan]

Photographs.

Looking at the photos from all the fantastic places we have visited over the last 40 years makes me feel very rich and privileged, and we are still clicking away.

This morning it is clear and sunny and when DW opened the bedroom curtains she looked out for a while then said, "I'm just trying to burn this view of the hills into my brain before we have to leave in a few weeks". Photos will help re-live these memories for years to come.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan This morning it is clear and sunny and when DW opened the bedroom curtains she looked out for a while then said, "I'm just trying to burn this view of the hills into my brain before we have to leave in a few weeks". Photos will help re-live these memories for years to come.

If you plan on returning prior to late September I hope you packed your asbestos-lined underpants.

[Major Tom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Photographs. Looking at the photos from all the fantastic places we have visited over the last 40 years makes me feel very rich and privileged, and we are still clicking away.

This reminds me of my friend who once told me that he thinks the best kind of wealth to build up is wealth of experience. He lives a comfortable middle-class life, so he certainly wasn't saying that from a position of inverse snobbery (i.e. because he's poor).

I agree with him. Learning new things, and seeing different things gives a very real and lasting sense of satisfaction.

Now if you want to know what kind of material possessions give me pleasure, I'd have to say the sight and smell of a cup of coffee and a pastry first thing in the morning

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 73ss454 ................I feel rich when I see everyone going to work. Sorry, I know you said things but I do love watching people rushing to work. (heh) If I'm up that early.

+1

[Walt34]

Learning new stuff/things/ and making it work.

For example, last night I finally got the color matching precisely correct between the camera, screen, and printer. DW just didn't understand what the enthusiasm was about but it made my day. This means that I can get the colors correct in photographs of subjects other than a color chart.

This is a color checking chart leaning against a piece of white foamboard leaning against a bookcase. Unless your monitor is also color calibrated it won't be accurate:

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 ... last night I finally got the color matching precisely correct between the camera, screen, and printer. DW just didn't understand what the enthusiasm was about but it made my day.

The long winter nights must fly by in the Walt household.
(I'm with Mrs Walt on this one)

[East Texas]

Going out in the hay meadow at night when there's a full moon and a clear sky and you feel you can almost touch the stars.

[rescueme]

Knowing that DW cares about me (through all the struggles in life), and my pups that "love me" - especially on those days that I feel the world is crashing around me.

I'm a simple person.

Priceless...

[TromboneAl]

Our big screen TV. Sorry to bring things back down to the materialistic level, but when I'm watching a video with an incredible image, I feel rich.

[East Texas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Our big screen TV. Sorry to bring things back down to the materialistic level, but when I'm watching a video with an incredible image, I feel rich.

I remember the first color TV we got a couple of years after they came out. We still kept the B&Ws just in case the new fangled thing didn't work our. On a side note: I just hate it when the old B&W movies are colorized....

[Lsbcal]

Experiences (not things in our case) that are different and fun. Example, yesterday DW and I took a drive to Point Reyes. We brought our oil painting gear and sat on a small beach painting the scene. DW had forgotten her painting gear but luckily I had brought enough that we could share. When you sit in one spot and concentrate on it for 2 hours, it's burnt into your brain. Just lots of fun.

Here's a photo of the view we were painting (Tomales Bay):

[Telly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo If you plan on returning prior to late SeptemberDecember I hope you packed your asbestos-lined underpants.

REW, I noticed a typo in your reply, so I corrected it

[PaddyMac]

Being able to afford original art makes me feel rich. We don't buy very expensive pieces, but when we have a little extra we pick up a small piece from a favorite artist. (It helps that we live an hour from Santa Fe.)

[Nemo2]

We have a few rugs, certainly not as many as calmloki, but here are a couple/few, plus some of the other items I enjoy owning, (and we're not 'stuff' people):

Rugs, all purchased in Saudi Arabia:






A Makonde Shetani picked up in Tanzania in 1988:


An old 'jug', the handle of which someone once tried to fix with a piece of bone), found in Riyadh:


And my favorite.....a hand carved Rhino purchased at a roadside stall in South Africa ~ 30 years ago........it was fairly inexpensive, but out of habit I attempted to bargain the carver down......."No", he said, "It's a fair price"....I agreed and paid him.

For some reason I just love it: