arrival

Hi, guys! 

We're here.  It's awesome and wonderful, and we really, really love it.  Loads of potential, feels like home.

As you can see, everything is still stacked on the floor, but our very favorite items are ready and waiting to find their new spots...

For now, game nights ensue and thanks are truly given.  Internet was just hooked-up today, and I've lots to talk about...After I catch my breath.  Catch up with you soon!

xoxox.

for you

Hello, friends!

Such a lovely print-to-be (above) from erin's window (and I'll be finding a place in our new home for it), and an equally lovely poem as well (below), sent to me by my bestie down in Oz.  Not sure of the author, but please do let me know if you recognize it!   It's by Mary Oliver--thank you, Hillary!

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice-

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”

each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do–

determined to save

the only life you could save.

Awesome, no?  I love it, love it, love it.

***

Moving house is the worst and I don't like anything about it.  But soon it will be over, and I will be so glad that I may do something kind of crazy.  Meanwhile, I do so hope that your weekend is peaceful and calm, at least!

xoxox.

what falls away

Hello, friends!  It's been busy here, moving and all.  I've been doing lots of thinking (as always) and I've come to the conclusion that what falls away is both what we so desperately don't want to let go of--and yet, what we so very much need to.

(via)

Clear as mud, right?  Well, let me say this:  the trials and struggles and difficulties of the past few years (which very much continue to this day) have made me the happiest that I have ever been.  I am more myself, and more authentically engaged, than ever before, and I came to this kicking and screaming.

With every trial we have faced (unemployment, mental illness, physical illness, displacement, foreclosure, near-poverty, what-have-you) has come an answered prayer, a blessing.  And with each step, we are closer to who we should be, and should have been, all along.  Although, that assumes that we knew better back in the day, and I truly believe that we didn't.  We do now, though, and that makes a hell of a lot of difference.

And so:  what falls away?  My own self-consciousness, isolation, fear, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, desperation, and a pervading sense of inadequacy that simply won't subside...Well, I'm more than happy to see it all go.  And with the lessons comes a new strength that will never leave me:  the knowledge that I am cared for and good enough and really kind of amazing in my own right. 

Priceless. 

This I can leave behind with my daughters:  a sense that they, themselves, are enough, and that they matter profoundly in some small, yet absolutely infinite, way.

Blessed days, indeed.

***

Moving house this weekend!  More to come;  please stay tuned, if you care to.

xoxox.