The pieces you take with you.

Peonies.  I love them.  But I never knew how much I loved them until recently.  Mom used to have one peony in the yard next to a tree.  It was lovely and I always anxiously awaited its popping through the Earth every spring.  Fragrant and pink and delicate, it was a touch of feminine in an otherwise rough and tumble sloping front yard.  At some point after I left home, through bad weather or a thoughtless grass-mower, it met it's floral maker, never to return to the Nashville sun.

They don't really grow in LA, and finding them in flower shops seemed remote.  Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.  But that was before I knew I loved them.  Here in London (England really) they are quite popular and probably grow in gardens.  I wouldn't know since I don't have friends with floral gardens.  But having them on my table brings a bit of fragrant, pink and delicate to an otherwise rough and tumble daily grind.  The peony is something I think I'd like to have around.

Moving halfway across the world, I tried to keep my personal totems to a minimum since I would have to carry them through Heathrow and I really do prefer to travel light.  But there are those things that you like to have with you.  Those things that give you hope or happiness or something in between.  And those things always end up on that list of Things You Must Have on a Desert Island, often for me before essentials like food or water.

Having the benefit of perspective, I can see that the overabundance of stuff I have in LA obscures the fragrant, pink and delicate.  Maybe it's the symptom of being a hoarder, or at least the daughter of a hoarder.  But if we find comfort in abundance, how can we appreciate the comfort of the essential?

Of all the things I have in LA, the things I chose to bring with me to London are:

• my wind-up sushi that I had in my office for years
• photos of James and Mom and Dad
• one really good kitchen knife
• hats - lots of hats
• a sparkly pink pen
• my National Geographic map of England and Ireland, used on all my previous 6 trips to the UK

And whilst in London, I have chosen these items as the new essentials:

• a garden gnome
• a  really good pink kitchen knife
• a coffee mug with "England" and a picture of Shakespeare
• handmade throw pillows with naughty words
• peonies

I have a feeling more things will make it back to the US.  But those are the essentials.