The $7 Light That Refused to Be Rushed

Some pieces come home with a plan.

Others… come home because you made eye contact with them and suddenly they’re yours.

This light was the second kind.

It started as just a globe—sitting in a tiny antique store in New Mexico. No base, no wiring, no clear purpose… just $7 and a feeling I couldn’t ignore. Which, if we’re being honest, is how most of my favorite things enter my life.

I didn’t know where it would go.

I just knew it wasn’t staying there.

So home it came… and then it waited.

And waited.

It lived on a shelf for a few years.

Then it got packed into a box.

Then into storage.

Then it took a cross-country trip to New York (honestly, more well-traveled than most people).

And then… it waited some more.

Five years. In a closet.

At this point, you’d think it might start questioning its life choices. I know I was.

But finally—I found the piece it needed. The right base. The thing that made it make sense. Around the same time, I had just painted over a truly unforgettable peach closet with a purple door (yes… Barney would have approved). Suddenly, this little light had a place to land.

And let me tell you—every time I opened that closet, it made me happy.

Not a showroom. Not a “perfectly styled” moment.

Just… joy in a closet.

Then came another move.

Down it came. Carefully wrapped (because now we knew it was special).

Replaced temporarily with one of those classic builder-grade “boob lights” that we all pretend we’re going to swap out immediately… and then somehow live with longer than we’d like to admit.

Into a box it went again—this time headed to Colorado.

But this time, it didn’t wait long.

Within a month, it was back out—hung up in a bold red coat closet in what we hope is our forever home. And for whatever reason, that door never seems to stay closed… which means we get to see it all the time.

And honestly? I think it was worth the wait.

The moral of the story?

Not everything you love needs a plan.

Not everything has to “fit” right away.

Some things just need time…

(and maybe a few cross-country moves, a questionable paint phase, and a couple years in a closet).

Keep what you love.

Trust the process.

And don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else.

If it makes you happy—

that’s reason enough to keep it.