Greetings dear friends! Thank you for all of your wonderful notes over the past several months, and please accept my sincere apologizes for not posting sooner. We moved into our house in the middle of September and although the move was just a few miles down the road, it proved to be just as laborious as all moves tend to be. In addition, the day that we moved, my computer expired, so I have literally been disconnected from the world. This felt deeply frustrating at first but with no budget to purchase another computer, as time passed, the lack of internet hours became somewhat of a respite.
Although we've been keeping a steady pace continuing to paint, build closets, install lighting, etc., we are still very much settling in and there is not one room that I could say is done. I’m beginning to realize that things are going to evolve over a very long time. This brought me great frustration at first because I cannot tell you how I calmed my nerves through many sleepless nights during the renovation with visions of a cozy, furnished household. But what I've found is that despite those unfulfilled visions, we are indeed making this house a home, and in ways that aren't necessarily seen or that can be necessarily captured in a photograph.
We are living in the house in its most purest form, nearly empty, and yet the coziness I dreamed of has come anyway. The sound of tiny footsteps on bare floors; the way the end of the day light makes the walls, the windows, and ourselves all shimmer in golden light; the silhouette of the leafless tree against a country moon; the way the walls lean here, and there, sometimes whispering the stories that played out before, before we came.
Outside, the wildlife sings a chorus. The rivers around our home bring birds and geese that cry and coo all hours of the day and night. Their sounds reverberate within me, offering a grounding to this beautiful world. When I wake at night, it is their cooing that gives me a smile to return to sleep on. Most mornings, there is a lone fox who weaves in and around our property. As we run to the windows, eager to say hello and welcome her here, I wonder, Is it she who is welcoming us?
I apologize once again for not posting sooner. I had plans to send Christmas tidings but I would be remiss to not mention the impact that our presidential election had on me. I don't know how else to describe it, but to say that the wind was taken from my sails on election day. Everything I hold dear, everything I hope for in a kind, just, intelligent, and compassionate world, retreated that day. Determined, I am calling our senators and representatives multiple times a week, sharing with them the weight of my worry over the risk to our democracy, and to our nation’s sense of humanity, grace, integrity, honor, and pure, simple kindness.
Dear friends, I am sending this note with a blessing of peace, wishing all of you the love of your family and the strength of your communities. Our blogs are only one of the many ways that we are all connected despite differences in landscape, culture, religion or race. We are the essence of true humanity - people linked together by our shared instincts for truth, fairness, and happiness, and to give and receive the most valued of human gifts - kindness.
As far as my blog goes, I still am unsure of when or how often I will post. Perhaps it is time to transition over to Instagram?
All of my warmest wishes,
Catherine
