Two Buttons

Elizabeth Gilbert, most known for her book Eat, Pray, Love, has a shop (which is more like a warehouse) of treasures she has collected from around the world.  It is located in Frenchtown, New Jersey, a beautiful one-and-a-half hour drive from here.  Her shop is called Two Buttons. If you go to her website (www.twobuttons.com), you will discover how the store got its name:

We are Jose and Liz – a Brazilian and an American who met in Southeast Asia and fell in love. We are both lifetime travelers, both suckers for beauty, both easily captivated by a good story or an exotic location or the promise of a village just around the bend where the people are all master weavers. Together, we have more miles of travel behind us than your average astronaut, but our favorite place in the entire world is Frenchtown, New Jersey, which is why we’ve settled here for good.

We named our business “Two Buttons” because a priest in Laos told us that we had so much love for life that we needed nothing more than two buttons in our pockets to get by in this world.  Actually, sometimes we have gotten by on only one button.

I've read a few of Gilbert's books, and my favorite is The Last American Man, the true story of Eustace Conway, who "lives off the land" in the Appalachian Mountains.  I also loved Eat, Pray, Love and was mildly annoyed at the movie of the same name, which just did not cut the mustard, in my opinion.  I have been to Two Buttons a few times and find it a fascinating place to browse.  While I cannot afford to purchase much there, I always find some small treasure to take home with me.  Whether one buys or not, it's a comfortable place to look around, enjoy some popcorn, and chat with one's companion about the oddities and beauties that are for sale.

And today was such a day.  I met my old friend Cheryl there, mostly because Frenchtown is a halfway point between our two homes.  Cheryl and I taught together back in the 70s and early 80s, but during the years that we were raising our families, we weren't really in touch.  And yet, all these decades later, our hearts are still connected.  It's one of those "pick up where we left off" kind of friendships.

We left Two Buttons and strolled along the towpath into the charming village of Frenchtown.  Lunch at The National Hotel was lovely, but before we knew it, the afternoon was waning and we needed to drive in opposite directions to return to our homes.  I do believe that on parting, there was a button in my pocket and one in Cheryl's, even if they couldn't be felt or seen.