The dust has settled, the snow has melted (only recently) ….and I can finally sit down and reflect on the last weeks. What a roller coaster it has been! First coming to terms with leaving the house I had lived in for 33 years and had renovated extensively to make it perfect for me… Getting rid of a lot of memories: clothing, toys, furniture, books… Packing, packing, packing… Having to endure the future buyer walking through my home, as if it was already hers, and planning out loud to tear everything down…(I had foolishly agreed to her coming a “few” times to plan her move HA! What a fine form or torture that was!) There were days when I doubted I would get through it, but I did, thanks to my friends and children…Taking down the hand painted backsplash was a symbolic way of removing my soul from the house…Something akin to people who walk through a house brandishing smoking herbs to rid the house of bad spirits.
Through the craziness I took a few days off to go to Washington DC. What a treat that was! The story is up on the travel side.
http://www.flyingplates.com/travel/washington.html
Finally the big day came, the movers swiftly carried away my belongings. I did not even cry at the notary… I think I was all cried out by then and ready. The kids took me out to lunch afterwards and I thought I was done with the emotional stuff. Little did I know….
I was preoccupied with unpacking and cleaning and trying to get settled into my new, albeit temporary, digs…so I was not very attentive to what was going on around me. Over the weekend the kids each disappeared to be with their friends, which was fine as it gave me time to get a grip. I knew we were all expected to meet at my mother’s for dinner sunday evening, so she could see her grand kids before they each went back to their respective corners of the world. I was tired and grubby and a bit irritated at the thought of having to drive all the way into town…but I did…and they got me!! I walked into a room full of family and friends and neighbours!! It was the most wonderful surprise ever! Absolutely unexpected… Who has ever heard of a “house UN-warming party”? They even went as far as to find a Turkish restaurant to cater the party, since my love of everything Turkish is legendary. What a night!
To recuperate from all these shocks I took a week off in Ixtapa Mexico….(it was right before the swine flu outbreak!) The story of THAT trip is also up on the travel side.
http://www.flyingplates.com/travel/Ixatapa.html
Now I am back in my log cabin in the woods and trying to settle into a routine, but my mind wanders to three good friends who are fighting cancer right now…One is a poet who loves the desert, the other is an epicurian who lives in the mountains, the third is young city dweller who loves the country… I feel helpless, being far away…but I cannot begin to imagine how they each feel…There seems to be so many people diagnosed with all kinds of cancer these days. It is scary.