While I was traveling in SLC, I often arose early in the morning to get to the Sunstone Symposium. I got my batteries charged by snapping photos before driving downtown. This was a pretty flower in my sister’s yard, shown here in the morning light.
August 2007
If it is nearly midnite and your body is aching nearly everywhere because of packing, lifting, cleaning, reaching, and walking. And you are now stretched out on your cozy chair, checking email for the first time in three days. And every once in awhile you look up and around your ‘new’ living room and remember the drama of your friends unrolling the magic red carpet and arranging the furniture that made this nice place into a *home*. Well if this is you, you just found yourself thinking back to that cozy little place across the street where you’ve lived the past five years. And you wonder if the next residents will know what those initials and handprints in the front sidewalk mean? And will the painters even pause a moment when they see a row of pencil marks and dates along the edge of the wall marking my kids’ changing height? And will those few rooms be somehow, always, marked with the memory of us even when all of the superficial evidence is gone?
Can you see my blue garden gate in the background??? :)
Moving Update: We are living in a sea of boxes and assorted disassembled furniture. We pick up the keys early tomorrow morning.
Who says moving takes a lot of time? (three cheers for the three day move and can someone please pass the bottle of ibuprofen….!)
People:
Guess what? I have just volunteered myself for that special kind of HELL called MOVING.
Yes, our little family is moving to a slightly larger space because I need a bathroom that’s modified for disability access. My past few major falls/accidents have occurred in bathroom spaces and I’ve just finally come to accept the fact that I need a bit more space and the security of grab bars around toilet and shower. So we are trading in our 675 sq ft place for a whopping 850-ish sq ft. It seems HUGE to us.
And not to worry–we will be easily found just across the street from our former digs. And when we are out of HELL, you are all invited to a ginormous housewarming party (details to come soon)!! :)
Note: this will mean that our filing cabinet will no longer be in our mini-kitchen. How weird will that be?? It will also mean retro orange-y countertops–just perfect for my yellow kitchenaid!
Hello friends! A thought for you:
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one…wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket–safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
~C.S. Lewis
Do you ever have a day where things are just rosy? Well that’s been my day (and it’s not over yet!!).
Lots of fun conversations with old and new friends, especially feeling the familiarity of Salt Lake City (a place that as home to us for several years). Breathing deeply and just letting it all wash over me. :)
On another note: as I sat in a writing workshop this morning I realized just how much my laptop has become an extension of myself. When I sit with it on my lap I seem much more able to interface with my world. I was a bit troubled by that realization–took it out and examined it for a moment. Wondered if I was missing out on some intimacy by always needing to have my computer (and wireless!) at hand. I may have to experiment with disconnecting myself sometime. But not now (hmmm….do I sound addicted or what?). In some ways I feel as if junebug (my affectionate name for my laptop) has become a kind of prosthetic extension of my self. This blog, too, is a part of that. A way of creating myself through images and text that is wholly me at the same time that it is wholly separate from me….
After a week of family togtherness (aka my family reunion), I’ll be on my own (sans John or the kiddoes) until Friday night. Not sure what sorts of adventures I will have, but I’m sure they will be good ones. [Note: I’ll be spending much of my time at the Sunstone Symposium, so it’s not like I’ll be _totally_ on my own…]
Today I ate cookies for breakfast. How’s that for a nice segue into some solotime??
Have been road trippin’ for the past few days and now am settled in a cozy basement room with Aunt Suz’s big mancat purring at my feet (and counting myself quite lucky!).
The adventures of the past few days are too numerous to recount here, but a few highlights:
-flash flooding throughout southern Utah. Mud. And rivers of water. And the heady heavy scent of rain in the desert.
-fresh peach pie (heavy on the fresh part), so good that it melted in my mouth
-giggling neices and nephews. Seeing GameBoy and CatGirl watching over their young cousins.
-the familiarity of Mom’s new home, our old futon couch, and looking into a sibling’s eyes and seeing so many years of shared experiences reflected back at me.
-taking pictures of the sunset over the mountains as we drove through Sardine Canyon. Loving the wind blowing in my face as I held the camera steady in the window.
-Clouds. The ever-changing splendor of the Cache Valley sky.