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When my daughter was 8, she asked me why there was a birdhouse on my business card. I told her that it represented how simple life can really be. By creating Campfires and embracing the Four Basics of Balanced Living, living well comes naturally. When you stop and think about it, what really is a birdhouse?

- a sheltered place to
rest,

- a place for belongings,

- an entrance (and exit),

- a view to the outside,

- a place to sit,

- and a comfortable place
for visitors.

For me, this birdhouse is a campfire, a center of positive energy that encourages meaningful experiences. If we take focus a bit of time and thought in the right direction, we can create the experiences of life, instead of the appearance of life.

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New York, Frank Lloyd Wright & Echoes

Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 03:12PM
Posted by

Christine Eisner

I just spent a week in New York. As always, the experience of it was stimulating, thought-provoking and so much fun! Having grown up there and spent the early part of my career there, it always feels like coming home.

When I pass by a building, there are echoes of people and moments that come right back to me. Even going through the doors of Trump Tower brings back the first (and only) time I was pick pocketed! Not the best of echoes, but those revolving doors always bring me right back to that moment.

A truly wonderful echo for me was going to the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit at The Guggehneim. Having spent part of my childhood living in New Canaan in a house that was designed by one of his proteges, it only dawned on me recently how much that house influenced me.

This quote of his that was in the exhibit, says it all:

“… so that comfort and utility go hand in hand with beauty”

He didn’t believe that “form follows function.” His credo was “form and function, as one.” I couldn’t agree more. In an ideal world, they should be intertwined, one balancing out the other.

Though I now live in Atlanta, in a slate-roofed brick house built in the 1920’s, I see how the choice of our home of the past 16 years — and many of the improvements we have made to it since then — have been influenced by Wright.

Everything we have done has interlaced aesthetics and functionality. We have also chosen to accentuate light and nature throughout our spaces. Going back to echoes, there are even ones that go back to that New Canaan house:

- the rug that in my current family room was originally in the living room of my childhood.

- the Barcelona Chair that is now in my living room was one of two that were located in our living room in that house built in the 1960’s.

- a teak bench in our breezeway was made from one of the extra beams that were used in constructing the window frames…

With that, I will leave you to think about your own childhood nests and how they might have influenced how you live now. Please feel free to share thoughts here!

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