Amy knew a lot about interior design and how to beautify a space. She spent her school years studying art, art history, color theory, music, theater, and film. She understood set design, creating ambiance with lights and color. She could shape a room with the same furniture and make it formal or sensual simply by placing things in different areas. She was well studied in woods, wood grains, stains, and paints. She could talk for hours about the difference between a traditional chandelier and a modern chandelier. Creating beauty was her life’s ambition and her life’s work. Amy had been an interior designer for dignitaries, Hollywood producers, famous musicians, and even a Saudi king. Her reputation was reaching the stratosphere where she could do no wrong. She was at the point in her career where she could roll a wheelbarrow of manure in the middle of a living room and half the critics would call her brilliant. She then met Tara working at a restaurant and her world was turned upside down.
Tara lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in the center of the city. Tara was an artist and a student at a nearby Zen monastery. She made enough to pay her bills and take care of his essential needs. She had extensive knowledge of native arts and the natural materials used to create a wide palette of colors. Amy was intrigued and the two met later for coffee. Amy bragged a bit about how she could turn any space into a place of beauty. Tara smiled and nodded before asking if she had ever seen such a perfect place. Amy said that she would go back to her greatest successes in interior design and she would always find something else that she could do.
Tara invited Amy back to her small apartment, very interested to see what she thought could be done to improve the small space on a modest budget. Amy loved a challenge and she happily accepted. When they reached the outside of the building, she Amy could see that she would have a lot of work ahead of her. The building was crammed between two others, offering no light from either the north or the south. She started to think about it as they walked up the stairs. They went up to the top floor, four floors above the street. Tara opened the door and stepped aside for Amy to enter.
Amy walked in and stood in the hall. The space opened up in front of her like a garden. There were no paintings on the wall, no shiny stainless steel. The space was mostly empty except for simple wooden furniture, earth-toned fabrics, and plants. Tara had created an indoor garden with bamboo, ficus, palm trees, flowers and plants. Her little space had a bubbling water fountain in the corner. The walls looked like fern-covered cliffs, and the bed was tucked into a corner that looked like a grotto. It was a sanctuary of simplicity, and for the first time in her life, Amy had nothing to offer.
There was a glass with a single rose on the table by the bed. Red glowed against the green ferns that tumbled down the wall. Amy was left speechless and from that day on she was dedicated to simplicity of design and using what nature had to offer.
