Sunday, November 23, 2014.
I took a walk.  On a foggy Sunday.  Down a street usually driven but hardly ever walked.  What a shame I had limited my view of the building to only one side of that same street and to Main Street.  Can't say what made me desire a cup of coffee on this Sunday morning.  A curiosity perhaps if I could find one, walking from the Matthias building.  Maybe the fog called to me, "Wander, see what you should see."
I did find that cup of coffee, an idea, and views.  I saw the building differently among its streets and the neighbors which stand with it.  Off Main Street and looking from the other way, I turned to see it "backwards".  Someone driving a car north on Genesee would not turn to look back... it's a one way going north.  It points you away. But if you do the 'rear view mirror' thing, you might be surprised.  There is beauty, not of prettiness, but a beauty of utility - of grind and grit.  There are rusty painted over details and decals among brick patterns and boarded-over arched windows hiding behind main streets and streets which lead to parks and trees and swings.
So I got my coffee.  And it was good. (A walk is always a good thing).

My Matthias

My absolute favorite view of the building.  This is what it is.... It is this. It is what my heart felt when I looked at it, opposite the direction of the street.... no one cared I was there... dreaming, quietly and intently... and of course, intentionally after spontaneity led me on a 'cup of coffee' walk this Sunday morning.
 

The picture shows Matthias.  I was stunned - stopped and silenced.  What did I just do?  What did I just see for the first time?  This is Matthias.  This is the vision (no, actually, I just added that - at the time all I could manage was a 'whoa'.  Seriously).

I apologize for not writing these ten or eleven days, but the time has done me well.  My goal was writing each day, in part due to gratitude and in part because even on the days which hold no news, there is news.  I never believed I would be owning a building much less dreaming and planning of a business.  Every day is a story in itself.  I did not wish to be selfish with the journey.  But there is something to be said of quality.  I have been writing 'old school' in the meantime and handling a whole host of life issues not unlike anyone has to handle all the time.

So my break was a time of wondering about quality writing, giving thanks, sharing, and bringing it all together honestly.  Because here, today, standing here.... that building is honest.  I cannot stand, in love with bricks and twenty-one thousand square feet of space, and pretend 'honesty'.  The building is.  It just is.  For ninety years.  I have drawn comparisons of its history to the story of my life....I still feel that way, but to not embrace all of it is a mistake.  On both sides of the comparison.  Because on both sides, there were mistakes, goof-ups, neglect, 'good-try-tap-on-the-back', tears, and all the rest...

But intentional pretense?  Nope.  Not with three floors of seven thousand square feet!  That is honest.  I aspire to a lack of posing.  I have a funny feeling that my success will be dependent upon the attainment of such a goal.  (Does not mean, however, that a person cannot dress-it up a bit...I mean, Matthias has to be decked out for the holidays!!)

The Street

 

I know, too many photos...Like life, I go overboard, I do this, I do that....I am ridiculous and serious or ridiculously serious or seriously ridiculous (you could see that one coming.... what was that I mentioned about 'pretense'?  Hmm. Out.the.window).

 

On both the Matthias Building and my life, there have been some grand moments as well as heartbreak and muck-ups.  Yes, grand happy moments.  My dreams are based upon both because even on the side of Matthias which is scarred by a neighbor's turkey fire more than a decade ago and is now the parking spot for a mammoth dumpster, I found a view.

 

 

I found that if I lean into the building to look up at the newly mortared chimney, there is a beauty from a far different view than if I looked at it yards away.  But you have to be willing to lean right tight against brick, then bend back.  Sometimes life is like that too.  You got to put it all in, then bend.

 



 

Matthias

 

 



With coffee to-go cup in hand, I walked 'home'.  There he is.  The view from Main Street... and the other side of Genesee.  I am not changing my mind as far as the front face of Matthias.  But his beauty is his whole character... And I never quite saw him as I did this morning...

 

 

May your Sundays and every day present you with the chance to take a walk...

 

Love and Blessings,

Thank you.

~stephanie