I’ve traveled far away from my home a few times in my life. Some were memorable life enhancing trips. Travel is good for opening our eyes and minds and hearts, I’ve always thought.
When I was a kid we moved two thousand miles across the country away from friends and family. That was life changing. Later we moved to CA. which was so different it seemed very far. I went to college in a different country. That felt far.
Sometimes it’s not so much the physical distance as the cultural differences that make you feel far away. Differences that are exotic, probably a big part of the appeal of travel, are one thing.
Moving is something else.
I will venture to say that home is an important place. It is an extension of who we are as people, as families. Our culture makes us and we make our culture. When we are out of our comfortable places, we grow, but it’s not without some hard moments.
I remember my mother setting up our home after each one of our moves. She would unpack boxes, arrange and rearrange furniture pictures, cupboards. Life inside would look very similar to where we left. Outside, we had new kids, new schools, new neighborshoods, new stores, new weather and many new ways to learn and get used to.
This last move-ish thing we’ve done has felt and continues to feel very far away.
This might feel like one of the farthest away places I’ve ever been.
Pretty. Here’s the garden we built and planted. G did the building parts, and dug out the front flower bed.
We’ve had several days of I’m not sure what you would call it.
Indecision?
Angst?
The weather is changing. Fall is here I guess, and we have no plan. It’s been a really long year of not knowing too many days ahead, so we are probably all feeling tired.
I know that I sure am.
Limbo is getting old.
On Saturday, G decided we needed a fridge. He spent ten minutes looking online, then jumped in the truck and left.
Well. That purchase made things a whole lot better. I won’t go into all of why, but I will say wow, what a difference.
I decided we needed a trash can. After searching all day, I found the perfect one. Oh my gosh! I LOVE my new trash can.
I’m not going to explain why or how these two items have changed our life because it might get long winded and boring, but oh my!
I’m creating a kitchen! Makeshift or not, it’s going to be beautiful and functional and Im going to love it. It’s even going to be insulated.
Plus we are formulating a plan to go back to CA in the winter, it sounds like that is for sure happening, though we don’t know when. In the meantime I have a creative outlet to keep my mind busy.
Eventually they have a plan for an attic granny suite. Drawings are being reviewed by the city. This has and could take a discouragingly long time, so I’m so relieved to be looking forward to heading back across the country. And to be creating a little cooking space in the meantime.
They contribute to making my life as good as I can make it. With so many small variables, not in my control, I’m learning to lean into the things that I love that I can do and have and be.
I know this is a temporary situation. I know that the hard things are pretty insignificant and small. I feel strongly that this is all important. It’s also an exercise and a learning experience, but the every day of it causes me to need some reminders.
Blogging helps me remember who I am and what I care about.
I enjoy the community and the other blogs I get to read. My favorites are favorites because they talk about things that I love, in ways that I love.
I haven’t been keeping track, but because most of the prompts are repeats and marked answered, I guess I have passed my one year point.
Maybe that makes me a writer. Maybe it makes me consistent. Maybe it’s just keeping me sane. I know it’s helping me stay me.
Whenever I answer this question there’s always more, but I don’t usually want to get into it. Fine, OK, good…
How are YOU all feeling?
Is it a bit of a weird question. Personal? Always changing?
Actually, it’s a good question for me to ask myself.
Or
What am I feeling? If I remember, I follow up with: How would I like to be feeling? How do I want to feel? If I can find that answer and a way toward that, I can have a springing off place. It’s a good mental game.
I do a few things daily to improve the quality of my life.
I have learned the importance of little daily habits. There was a time when I was young and could get away with all sorts of less than healthy things. It’s possible I spent too many days trying to undo my discomfort due to some of these.
Little by little it became clear that it’s worth the effort to do little things for my own well being everyday. I don’t know when I realized that nothing has to be extra hard or time consuming, but that regularity is important.
I used to make big dramatic changes, usually on Mondays, worry about my weight constantly, spend hours at the gym, run, try to eat a certain way (many forms of different dietary strictness). Little by little, I got away from all of that.
Now, I eat chocolate every day. I ignore the scale, I walk most days, do some form of yoga, and rarely run. (mostly only when I’m playing chase with grandkids). I like Mondays now, it’s just another day. My weight doesn’t fluctuate. I meditate.
I’m much kinder to myself. I eat fat. I drink coffee. I listen to music. I look for positive, beautiful things.
I’ll choose that. Positivity, beauty, fun. I choose to include as many high energy thoughts, doings, visuals in my day that I can.
I look for these. It’s not always easy. Some days feel wildly out of my hands.
Here’s something I’m learning and may have to continue to learn.
What I give my attention to seems to get bigger. If I take my attention away, it seems smaller.
‘Seems’ might be the key word here, but I don’t even care if it’s just my imagination. If I’m noticing every thing going wrong, not only do those things seem more overwhelming, but more things seem to go wrong.
If I can get myself to start noticing positive things, weirdly I see more good things. More good things start crowding out the not so good.
My circumstances are not ideal. I accept that. I just know that I can still live a good happy, high vibration life if I pay attention.
Today I scrolled through Pinterest looking for nothing in particular. Just something…
The news today was full of dangerous weather, election coverage, war updates.
There’s a constant reminder of summer ending. (People take this pretty hard around here). Seasons, man, who knew?!
It’s not even 7:30 and
I’ve already managed to get myself on G’s last nerve. My general lack of boat knowledge is never ending. Apparently it’s common sense that you take the motor off when the boat comes out of the water for winter.
If you don’t have a trailer.
This trailer thing affects everything. Eye roll emoji
I just wanted a cute boat to tie to our dock. A boat on a trailer in the yard or driveway holds no aesthetic appeal whatsoever for me. So luckily that won’t be a thing.
Taking the motor off and figuring out where to store both is a silly thing to worry about. Especially since the lawn mower is broken, our WiFi and tv service is giving us problems, and there seems to be no end to other small annoying things going wrong…
I want something beautiful or fun to focus on. Just for a little while.
On top of everything that I’ve been doing a great job ignoring…
This could turn things around for me.
Finding something (anything!) is challenging me today. So I decided, after seeing many beautiful pictures on Pinterest, to come down to my boat on the dock, which needs bailing (because apparently that’s what has to be done every time it rains. Every. Time. (eye roll emoji again)
Whatever.
It’s peaceful here. The water is calm. It’s lovely.
But now I’m walking back up about to help load the lawnmower into the truck. Again. Yesterday it rained. That’s another story.
Heading to yoga now
Later…
Yoga was just what I needed.
The message was perfect.
Something about this owl character that signifies trust and not being attached and opening up to what might later be something much bigger and better then what we alone could envision.
Sometimes I just need a reminder to look for the good things, the things I’m grateful for. To fall back and observe my own thoughts. To know there’s so much good out there.
I was already feeling my mood lift when I noticed a missed call from a favorite friend in CA. I tried her back. We had a great chat. She had a good story about someone loving my book. I never tire of hearing this kind of feed back.
When I came home, there were a few failed attempts but eventually the motor was attached, filled, started and we took off out on the water.
Soon we had some speed, not too much because you have to gradually increase according to the boat motor instructions.
But oh my! That was fun!
We are going back out after supper!
Just another reminder, I can never predict where any day will take me.
Yesterday it rained unpredictably for hours. I guess the weather man and all the weather apps missed that or it was a New England surprise.
Things can can go in any direction, but good to see and remember good stuff happens too.
Yesterday we went to this beautiful organic farm for an event they called Farm Fest.
The place is beautiful. They had live music, cooked pizza in the onsite pizza oven with ingredients grown on the farm.
As the sun dropped below the horizon, the warmth of the day lingered. We somehow ended up at a table with the owners who entertained us with stories about how they learned how to run the farm and all the things they tried.
It was a sweet summer night. Good food, good conversation, good laughs.
I once read a book called ‘A Homemade Life’ by Molly Wiesenberg. It became my favorite cookbook.
Several recipes from this book became repeat family favorites.
Molly’s ratatouille is the best one I’ve had. Her recipes are all explained very well, with easy to follow instructions. In her book she tells stories from her life and how each dish fits into it.
Her soup recipe from a kind neighbor, is well loved by many. It’s famous on the internet. You can easily google and find it. It’s called Ed Fratwell soup after the neighbor. When I make it, I always use way less beans and mine is more soup, less thick, than when my friend makes it. (she’s a better direction follower than I am) Both are delicious. My daughter in law’s version is also delicious.
Probably my favorite recipe from the book is called ‘The Winning Hearts and Minds cake’ it’s so delicious and so easy. You can easily make it with almond flour if you are trying to avoid gluten. My kids could make this with very limited help from me.
Even so, as it turns out, it doesn’t win over everyone.
Well
maybe everyone who likes chocolate.
And cake.
Since everyone grew up, we now have family members who don’t like chocolate and others who don’t like cake. There was a time that I couldn’t even imagine such a thing.
Life surprises me. What can I say.
So we can’t win. Lily made her own chocolate cake which rivaled that one. With only chocolate-loving-cake-likers present, hers won over that crowd.
Peace Kit 