Sunrise at the End of the Road
There is something so inherently beautiful about the sky to me. It’s open and endless, beautiful colors. It inspires a longing in me to be, well not actually outside, but less tied to the conventional work day. Even right now, I’m staring out at some of the most beautiful fluffy white clouds against a stark blue and sighing.
Of course, if it wasn’t for my job and trying to avoid the early morning rush, I would never get up early enough to see the sunrises. Then again, if it wasn’t for my running significantly late, I still wouldn’t get to see them.
So, if my job ever comes to me and asks why I can’t make it in on time, I will simply point them to my new series called “Sunrises at the End of the Road” or alternatively “Pictures I Can Only Take Because I’m Running Late”. Then they can agree that running late isn’t such a bad thing. Y’all will back up me, right?
Laughing at plans
Recently, I was in the market to buy myself another house. It’s been a little more than 2 years since I was laid off and thus sold my first home. This is something that I genuinely look back on as a bad idea. The truth is that it was a smart financial decision, but not the best decision for myself. My house shopping was put on hold by Hurricane Harvey, but recently picked back up.
It had to have a big yard, I’m talking give me an acre so I can have trees and an enormous garden landscape. Let me have my giant wind chimes and a bajillion smaller ones without concern for a subdivision of angry, annoyed neighbors. There needed to be the space for a studio/workshop where I can setup a place for sewing, jewelry making and crafts. I was also trying very hard to find a nice en suite with a garden tub and stand-alone shower. And naturally, this would all have to be within my minuscule budget.
What I found was close enough. Small house, but not in bad shape with an acre of land for me to do whatever I please. I was sold. There were so many things I could do with the property and the house, but we kept running into roadblocks as my realtor combated an inexperienced sellers agent. Side note, the stories she told me about the other agent were both funny and scary at how little this agent understood about the process. But finally, we were discussing pushing back the closing date to accommodate the selling agents failures when I got a terrible text.
My grandmother, who had been struggling with pneumonia for several months, was at the end of the line. It could come at anytime, the text said. Come up and say your “goodbyes”. And in the hours that the family spent up at the hospital, diligently watching over her, I threw out to my mom that perhaps she would want to move into her childhood home but mostly that I could not stand the idea of seeing and knowing that someone else was living there. Would they appreciate the cabinets my grandfather handmade? Or the pecan tree grown from a seed from my great grandmothers home? The sheer amount of history in this house that my grandparents built together?
Instead, they decided to offer me the opportunity to buy it and match what I was at on the house I was almost closed on. This was a heavy choice to make, but I was assured that even if I went and made all sorts of changes, they would be happy with it. And so, I will be making my new home in the home my grandparents built.
Stay tuned for the upcoming renovations that will be happening!
#YouShouldToo
I aspire to be a compassionate person. #YouShouldToo
I aspire to be a generous person. #YouShouldToo
I aspire to leave this world better off than when I got here. #YouShouldToo
Find a cause you are passionate about. Donate, volunteer, bring attention to it, stand up for it! But before you run headlong into battle, consider this:
Can you #DoItWithCompassion
Can you #DoItWithKindness
Will it be #ForGoodOrForGreed
Does it #BringOthersUpOrTearThemDown
If what you seek to champion is an argument against innocence, against gentleness, against kindness, against compassion, please take a moment to think about why. Evaluate why you feel the way you do. Is it facts? Is it belief? Is it an internal struggle of your own psyche that you simply can’t contain?
If you can genuinely say that you care nothing for anything other than yourself, that there is nothing good in this world that you want to uphold then I’m sorry that you are so devoid the feeling that comes from #Altruism. I hope that enough people choose to champion all the forms of #Altruism to drown out the sounds of negativity and hate.
I Did It
I brought home another dog. My dogs are not amused. In fact, my senior shivers and whines. My other one cries a high pitch, excited but scared sound.
What has mommy done to you? 😢
In other news, the new puppy has no name. He needs a name.
Better to ask forgiveness,
Have you ever, knowingly, lied about your intentions, but for good reasons?
Yeah, me too. I’ve been watching the current struggle of our county’s animal shelter with such a heavy heart. I’ve been throwing down donations like crazy on animals on the review list to save them from euthanasia. I even went so far as to go in and put an adoption hold, knowing full well we don’t need a 6th dog again.
Ok, ok…6 is a lot. But hear me out! We had a family dog, I moved out and got a dog, a dog showed up on the family doorstep and we had 2 family dogs. I moved back in, rescued and sadly lost a puppy (sudden cardiac arrest). My sister picked up a pregnant stray from the roadside and we were able to find homes for all except mom and one of the puppies. I moved out and got a second dog. I moved back in for our grand total of 6 until the original family dog passed away.
And of course, I’m actively working on moving back out. If I could put money aside instead of giving it away. Which means that our huge number is only temporary, right?
Well, the adoption hold I had wasn’t for me. I was a backup and completely unnecessary it seems. And that’s good! I couldn’t be happier that a life was saved and I have the opportunity to do more. But, now I have TWO little faces on my radar and I didn’t tell anyone that I might just snatch up both instead of picking.
Our little secret for now?
Desk Gardening
I can’t keep plants alive for anything. Seriously. Plants labeled as “un-killable” are gone in a matter of months under my care. Which is a shame, because I care. My lovely Lucky Bamboo plant on my desk at the office has developed yellow stalk. Too much water? Not enough water? The wrong kind of water?
When purchased, I didn’t check to see if the rock setting was all the way through, but I assumed so which was a mistake. Turns out there was soil under them! With my loving water schedule, the soil remained over saturated and soggy leading to a stagnant smell and no way to drain off.
Research says that a yellow stalk is doomed, but I’m going to try my hardest to nurse it back to health. My track record isn’t all that great, but I’ll try just the same.
My Daily Green
The only living, green thing to look at all day. It’s pitiful, but at least it’s something. “Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day…” ~Peter Gibbons from Office Space
Dreaming of the Good Life
I spend a lot of time dreaming about this ideal life that I’ll have once I’ve moved far into the wilderness and built my hobbit hole. In all my research, I’ve looked for every possible advantage for creating a self-sustaining, self-contained, eco-friendly, off-the-grid dream house.
There’s the way the light will filter into the kitchen, the spaciousness of my living room, the comfortable layout of my studio or the back porch swing that overlooks some water feature (maybe a pond or creek or both). My enormous wind chimes reverberate like miniature church bells and I can hear the birds instead of neighbors. At night, the sky is clear and you can actually see the stars.
Sleek and modern, yet old world charm highlights the arches and curves painted my favorite cheery colors. I invite over guests to stay for vacation (I know it’s such a long drive) and we marvel over how relaxing it is to exist without chasing material goods and wants. We pontificate why we haven’t evolved our society to something so wonderfully simple and laid back. We don’t have lots of money, but it seems so silly to need it when we already have so much.
Sure, there is work to be done. Food to harvest from the garden, eggs gathered from the chickens, goods to produce for income and general housekeeping. It’s not exactly easy work and yet, at the end of it, comes a satisfaction that life is good.
Sometimes it is good to dream, sometimes it’s just sad that the cost is so high.
#ahobbitslifeforme #ahobbitsdream #dreamingofthegoodlife #dreamhouse
Hello world!
First post!! Not that I really have anything meaningful to say just yet, still…I’m excited!
