The Home of Our Dreams

This is the home of Evalina Peksowa, who is a well-known reverse glass painting artist living in Zakopane, Poland. (here's an example of her work to the left.)  I had the good fortune to visit Evalina last summer while I was in Zakopane teaching English to Polish teenagers at an English language summer camp. Evalina is 87 years old, so she has lived most of 

her life under economically trying and emotionally and spiritually stressful conditions; first, enduring the sufferings of the Second World War and then under the cloud of over forty years of communist occupation of her country. Poles suffered under communism: from food shortages or severe lack of variety in food items, from the inability to travel freely or choose a particular course of study, from limited economic opportunity, and from, perhaps worst of all, from a lack of freedom to express themselves politically, spiritually and through the written and spoken word, and to have a say in the destiny of their homeland.

The amazing thing is that when you travel throughout southern Poland, you see one remarkable house after another, just like Evalina's, belying any sort of oppression. (Not so in neighboring Slovakia, which looks far more run down and derelict, as if communism departed in a hurry, leaving the people at a loss as far as what to do next.) The people of the Tatra Mountain regions in southern Poland are extremely creative and capable artisans, working primarily in wood. Many of the homes you see were constructed without a single nail, which, the Poles told me, where hard to get under communism. Wood, however, was plentiful in the surrounding mountains, and much of people's creative energies went into constructing fine homes.

I often dream of a house. For now, Stephen and I live in an apartment facing a lake in Feather Sound, as he is in a training program, and we aren't certain where we'll be a year from now. Home ownership just isn't a good thing for us right now, given the uncertainty of our situation.   

More often than not, I find myself remembering Evalina Peskova's home. Every inch of her modest home--including the ceiling--was lined with and occupied by folk art. Her garden, as you can see, was absolutely stunning. Even the exterior of her house was charming, down to her lovely glass painting of the Holy Family--the iconic "happy family" of the Christian tradition--graced by a flower box. 

Like many women, I want to build that kind of a home; a beacon of beauty, hope and creativity fashioned from modest means; an inspiration to others, and a light in dark and dreary times and circumstances. Women like Evalina remind me that building a thing of beauty--creating the home of our dreams-- doesn't have to wait for a good economy, or an idealistic and perfect "some day" when everything will work out or fall into place. Building the home of our dreams happens NOW, every day, in the grittiness and reality of daily living. Then one day, perhaps when we are older, we'll look back and see the magic that was the journey, and reap the years of our labors in savoring the beauty and goodness we put into this world. I try to keep this vision before me, of a woman who didn't let war, communism and economic insecurity keep her from fashioning the home--and the life--of her dreams.

(Note: Evalina's home is at Ulica Cichej Wody 8, Zakopane, and is open to visitors by appointment.)