Hello, anybody home?

Come in, I’d yell through the white matte metal door.

Hello, anybody home?

Come in, I’d yell through the white matte metal door.

I would mean through my garage door.

Because if you are letting yourself in, then we are friends, family.

Just past the mess of coats and backpacks and who-knows-what else-its and into the hub of my home and life.

If you came to my front door, rang the bell, it’s a little more formal. I would open the yellow door and greet you with a hello. How do you do?

To be honest, we don’t use our front entry very often.

I think about how in other countries, and cities, people don’t have garage doors. And, how back doors, many times, are inaccessible. The front door is the hub, the entry, the welcome to the house for anyone and everyone. The mailman and your mother, all the same. The front door is the entry into a house, but even more so into a home. Stepping through someone’s front door is seeing statements but also feeling feelings.

It’s where you take your shoes off to stay awhile or where you put your coat on for a send-off.

Come in. I say as I open the yellow door into our ranch and lives.

The patchwork rug receives your cold feet and the words on the wall declare love lives here, hinting of lives lived in sunshine and rain. You see it. I hope even more so you feel it.

You take off your shoes and stay awhile.

It’s anything but formal. It’s friendly and perhaps the next knock will be on my garage door.

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It’s interesting to me this front door back door concept. My front door has always felt a little cold. Uninviting. I haven’t had a rug there for ages. Years to be exact. And that is exactly what was missing – a rug. Before hands shake, or someone hugs, a step in is taken. I’ve just incorporated this rug from Sukhi and suddenly my front entry feels welcoming and happy, which is exactly the meaning of “Sukhi” in Nepali.

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I’m quite happy with my rug that was hand-made in Istanbul. I think of the artisans that made the rug. The possibility that it was crafted in a home. A mama on the other side of the world, working while watching her children. Our homes, our lives, so different, and yet with traces of same. Love, sunshine, rain and rug.

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And if you are accustomed to the back door, our backpacks and who-knows-what else-its. Next time, you may want to try the front door, take off your shoes and stay awhile.

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*This essay is in collaboration with Sukhi. I love sharing brands and products that I know you will love just as much as I do.