book of jubilation

Hello, hello!

Here we are, silly lifelong-Californians, in Eastern Tennessee, USA...and boy, I had no idea that I would ever see anyplace so beautiful.

It's just amazing, and we all love it.  We are only about 200 miles from our new home, and we'll be rolling in there tomorrow.  (Updates will proceed as we settle in--Internet hookup has been sparse on the road, but I'll be back super-soon, I swear.  The break has been nice, but my sanity depends on my thoughts here, in this blog.  This space is all about me, and it's the only place I have like it.  I miss it, and your companionship, very much.) 

I love the East Coast.  Love it.  Sometimes I think I should have been here all along, but that wasn't part of the plan, obviously.  And as is my wont, I'm doing lots of thinking on the road, about no less than LIFE and LOVE and WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT.  I have so much to share, when I finally get it all sorted in my head.  Not that I have any answers, far from it!--but I have so much faith and hope and wonder that I can hardly stand myself.  This world is an amazing place, my dears, and filled with so much beauty and pain and intensity that it makes my heart beat faster just at the thought of it all.  It's often scary, and hard, and even brutal, sometimes.  But it's also a place of laughter and growth (always with the growth) and healing...It reminds me of a line from Josh Ritter song:  "If there is no Book of Jubilation / we'll just have to write one for ourselves."  Oh, yes.

So, I'm writing mine.  With stones and pebbles, leaves and birds.  With the laughter of my girls and my husband and myself, with the healing of my family, and a little old house in a field.  With the wise mountains and the giggling creek, and the somber clouds traced by sunlight.  I'll write it here, for you, and I won't spare a word, because it's all part of the story, you know?   The Book of Jubilation.

I hope you'll join me.  I think it will be something, I really do!  Thanks for hanging in there, if you have, and if you care to stay with me, I'll be back soon.  Can't wait.

Meantime, love to you and yours.

xoxox.

feel-good beginning

(beautiful photo via Veronica Torres-Miller)

Hello, all! 

So good to be here...I'm dropping in for a quick update, for those who care, and because it will be a few more weeks before I can get back to regular blogging.  I miss it so very much, but there's just no way I can justify the time right now, you know?   Life calls.

Why?  Well, we move-out on Friday, and start the trek eastward to Roanoke, Virgina.  At last!  Would you like to see what it looks like?  Because I never knew before my husband went there a few weeks ago.  Look!:

It's surrounded by lots of beautiful countryside with history and nature and all manner of loveliness.  For us Californians, it's the trees and the history that will surely delight (and snow, for the girls).  We've rented a little house from the 1920s that is situated on a former dairy farm, with horses and a creek (Tinker Creek, no less, the setting from one of my favorite books!) and the Appalachian Trail just over the mountain...Yeah, we're excited.

In some ways, our move feels like it is meant to be.  The manner in which our California home sold (in just a couple of weeks, for cash, to the perfect buyers, in this market);  the very, very kind woman who has agreed to rent to us, in spite of all our difficulties this past year;  many other blessings too numerous to name.  But still, the human heart always asks for more, doesn't it?  You see, we still have no "secure" employment back east, and for many people this would, in fact, be a deal-breaker.   But not us.  After all, as my husband says, we're going to need new jobs no matter where we are--why not move to your dream hometown, and start anew? 

Why not, indeed!  There's something to be said for courage and bravery and trusting in the continued goodness of God to keep his promises. 

And a new and dear friend wrote about just that, just yesterday!  (That, too, tells me we are on the right path...)  Sweet Jan, proprietress of the adorable Bikbik & Roro, talked about just this sort of thing on her blog, and I cried when I read it, because it so perfectly said just what I needed to hear.  (Read all about it right here.)  Now, I don't mean to say that God has promised me a better life.  For one thing, my life is pretty awesome--I have dear friends, many comforts, and a family that brings me joy every single day.  For another thing, I'm not entirely certain that God is worried about my husband's state of employment.  But if you believe in God, and I do, you probably believe that he wants the best for you, and I do believe that.  And I don't think that the way we've been living, these past few years, is the best that we can do.  Not for ourselves, and not for others.  We have much, much more to give, and much, much more to learn.  And that's what I think God's been trying to tell us.  We're meant to do more for this world, and in return, our lives will be enriched beyond measure.  I really believe this.

Anyhoo...I'll keep you posted.  We're going to take our time travelling across the country, showing the girls some sights along the way, visiting family, discovering our new world together, slowly.  In the meantime, may I share a few links I've found recently that I love?  I haven't been all that active on the "interwebs" lately, but blogging is all about sharing, so I've got to share.  (Especially a thing or two that's not about me, me, me!  Ahem.)

Here you go:

The sweet, sweet Janice, mentioned above, was the subject of a wonderful Mom Story over on Bloesem Kids this week.  You will love every bit of it.

Erika has a new doll.  It is predictably darling, and I am smitten.

Unni has a new Norwegian Reindeer design (+ give-away!) that has me humming Christmas tunes!  (A white Christmas?  No way!)

This adorable fall yo-yo wreath from Jek might make me hold my horses, just a bit.  Yo-yo's just never get old...not for me, anyway.  Ever since I made my first yo-yo quilt at the tender age of 11 (in the eighties, when it was not cool to craft), I've been a lover of all things "yo."

This new line of necklaces from beautiful Ariana?  Simply perfect.

Despite all my talk of giving, most of the time I feel like this.  (Thanks, Vanessa!)

And bringing it all home again, this post on Andrea's Paper Sparrow blog about new beginnings made me very happy, indeed.

***

So, my dears, I shall see you in a few weeks--please stop by and see how it goes...It'll be a "feel-good" ending beginning, I think.

'Til then, blessings.

xoxox.