How Did I Know?

When I began this blog, something about water resonated with me.  It wasn't just because I was moving to New Hampshire.  It is because I find water healing. I knew at some point, I would move back. I have always vacationed in New England and I love the culture there!  Family is everything and I longed to be closer.

                                                          Hampton Beach, New Hampshire

The two years I had the New Hampshire apartment were fun, but it wasn't my own home.  Even though I was near one of my children, I longed to come back to the mountains, to my things, to my familiarity.

For many years now, the southern Appalachian mountains of western North Carolina have held me in their fold.  Somehow, I found the courage to leave an empty twenty-eight year marriage and relocated here.  My children had graduated from college, each one going toward their own adventure.  It was time I went toward mine.  And, I came here -  to the Great Smoky Mountains.  It has been a dream come true.  My gratitude for the opportunity to experience this adventure overwhelms me.  So does moving on to the next adventure.  While excited, I am terribly sad to leave.  Words can't describe what this beautiful area means to me.  It will always be in my heart.


If you know me well, you know I have always been drawn to nature, especially the mountains.  I grew up in Baltimore and spent a lot of my life around water.  Whether it was rivers, ponds or the Atlantic, water was in my being.

Maybe it was a natural expression for me to be to continually called to the mountains, to the sea.  I've been in the Smokies seventeen years.  I hope I have that much time by the sea.  But whatever it is, I am coming back to family.  It has been a long time since I have lived near my children.

We've all grown so much in these seventeen years since I have lived in the south.  Evn though, I have made countless trips to see my children, living close and having my own home near them is a dream come true.  And now my child has relocated to Maine.

                                                               Portland, Maine

In the weeks and months to come, I will share some of my photos of the new house.  It's a wonderful place.  Great room, open concept, modern.  Very New England and I love that.

I don't expect to be able to do the Utah trip I have dreamed about for years just now.  Perhaps next year I can work it out.  It is a culmination of a summer spent in a small Mormon town in Ephraim. and the life that ensued afterward.  I was there at seventeen and have longed to go back. The town has changed immensely as have I.

While you can't go home again, you can revisit a place of your youth.  You take your own good, loving thoughts and re-experience the area and yourself.

Can I really be turning seventy this fall?

Seventy

Seventy.  That's a lot of years!  It's only been lately that I feel my history is a long one.  Laughing as I say that because I've always felt young.  Vibrant.

I told my children and close friends that this year would be something special.  That I was going to take a trip.  It would be a year of big change but I didn't know what that would entail.  Exactly.

Where here it is!  I am moving to coastal Maine!

Now if you follow my rants, you will know that I am a lifelong activist.  Justice in all its forms is top of the list.  I don't want anything hurt or abused.  We are all in this world together and must find a way to cooperate better.

How curious is it that I am moving from a less progressive area back to what is familiar.  But I have never lived in a city before.  I have lived just on the outskirts.  Now I am a ten minute way from just about everything I need.  And, a Starbucks.  I prefer a little coffee shop but hey, I am grateful to be able to sustain my vanilla latte habit. Plus,  I've always lived near ideas, progressive towns.  It seems fitting that I go back.  My little coastal town is all of that.  Very open, very progressive.  They take recycling seriously.  The environment, too.

I will miss my little southern Appalachian town immensely!  I did the first time I moved to New England.  But this time is different.  I will have my own little house on a street surrounded by preservation land.  Just a fifteen minute trip to the ocean and voila.  Twenty some minutes to family and all the downtown charm and wharf I can handle.

Do you understand that I absolutely love my new house?  It is my dream house.  Cathedral ceilings, arched doorway, open concept in the living, dining and kitchen areas. Lots of closet space.  Well designed and lit. I even have a covered front porch, just perfect in size.

Now to sell my little southern Appalachian house to someone who will love it as much as I!

Another Adventure Awaits!

How do I put into words all the emotions that are running through me? A lifetime of memories.

Seventeen years ago, I moved south to live my dream - to have a mountain home in the southern Appalachians.  I would be Heidi on the mountain.  All grown up.

This has been an incredible journey.  I've met so many loving people, became part of a town that was going through lots of changes.  Got involved in many non-profit organization.  I did what I always do wherever I live.  Volunteer.   And, I've been honored and am so very grateful to all the people I met along the way. I've made some lifelong friends!

Some of my friends have passed.  I think of them often. Some moved away.  They, too, are always in my heart.  Then there are the acquaintances.  Those are really hard to leave because you know you won't stay in touch.  But the ones near and dear to my heart - wow, that is tough.

I got a dear note the other day from a friend.  The friend knew how hard it was for me to be away from my grandchildren.  They knew sometime I would eventually move closer.

"I don't want you to go," my friend said.

We shared some memories.  The tears refused to stop. The tears say it all.  Other friends have called, written notes, asked to meet for a meal.  Between taking things off the wall, trying to figure out how I can get some needed essentials in my car which I won't have access to for a while is a challenge.  But I will make it work.  I always do.

My daughter lives in an area I really like.  Not too much in the winter, although snow is beautiful.  But, the state moves. It is well prepared for the snow.  Two hours after a storm, the roads are packed with automobiles, people going about their day.  But, the summers.  Oh my.  There is no place like Maine in the summer. And, I do my best watercolors by the ocean. Always have.

But my next adventure includes my family.  And, it has been twenty years since I owned a home near my children.  Now I will live near one of them.  I am also much closer by plane to my oldest, too.  We are all in such a good place.  Settled.  Conscious.  Arms wide open.

In eight weeks, I have been on eight planes.  It will be nice to do a road trip - all 1100 plus miles.  Soon.

Let the adventure begin.

Weathervanes

Weathervanes follow the direction the wind blows.  Do you?

When was the last time you took something personally?  An hour ago you say.  Have you examined why you do that?

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering. – From The Four Agreements don Miguel Ruiz

Why would you let anyone tell you what is inside of you?  Unsure of that?  Maybe it is time for you to examine this.  To examine your truth, to examine your own value of yourself.

Nothing in this culture is sustainable under the current programming.  A Nazi was just elected in Illinois.  When the going gets tough...well, you can finish that.

The real focus is where you are vibrationally.  This video runs one hour and thirty three minutes.  Well worth it. Are you?

FIVE GATEWAYS:  The 5 D Shift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi2Lw-JjsYo&feature=youtu.be

Let It Go

Let it go!  I am a fan of the movie, Frozen.  I've seen it in the theatre with my grands and on the television a few times with my grands.  I love the production!!

I would love to see it on Broadway and maybe I shall.


The production is for everyone ~  a timeless story ~ for we all have much to release.  Especially now in these times of media induced misery.  White House induced misery. Our own induced misery. You get the point.

Awakening each morning, I am so very grateful for my life.  For all the challenges that continually send me home.

So often we get ourselves into a less than pleasant mood. It is important to remember how our realities are formed, the story lines we continually tell ourselves.  Most of the time, especially when we are unconscious, we believe external factors cause this 'unpleasantness.'  The car broke down, there is more corruption in politics, life isn't what we want it to be.  It just isn't...perfect.

Somehow along the way we busy ourselves to a ridiculous degree.  Then we get annoyed.  Sick.  We do it again and again. You can color this picture with your own experiences.

I know a lot of 'busy' people.  They are always running.  Trying to prove their self worth.  But to who?  No one really cares.  Then they change their brain chemistry which becomes addicted to 'the run' and live that addiction.  Until they decide to change it.

It is ALL about the ego.  Me, me, I, I.  Look at what "I" did.  Well, the truth is, YOU didn't do it.  You called it in. Laws of attraction and all.  You can also decide to be present in your life.

I've been busy.  And quiet.  I do love the peace and the quiet on the mountain in the woods.  It is easier now.  Less distraction.  More authenticity.

My wish for others is that they don't have to wait a lifetime to get there. Let it go!

When a person in a bad mood doesn't understand how realities are formed, he or she believes something external is wrong. a person in a bad mood doesn't understand how realities are formed, he or she believes something external is wrong.

Christian Or Not?

"I want you to tell me if you're a Christian or not."

"I think I am," responded the commissioner.

Picture this.  The commissioners room in a western North Carolina county.  The first amendment to the United States Constitution apparently doesn't matter here.

This same commissioner who should have explained the First Amendment to the taxpayer's question is the same commissioner who was ordered in 2017 by a Superior Court judge to pay his contractors $39, 581.34.  Yes, this is the very same commissioner who, I believe, failed to disclose this nasty little problem.  The chair of the commission kept silent.

Pardon the digression.  It adds a pattern to the current issue.  A pattern not just in this particular commissioner, but to the attitude that sits on the bench in this county.

The current issue is about the Brunch Bill.  The bill is a measure to allow alcohol sales at restaurants at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

It appears the zealot religious folks turned out in numbers against a sole restaurateur in favor of this bill.  The opposition even claimed it was disrespectful to churchgoers to allow the bill to honored in this town. You should know that this bill is subject to local ordinances.  Convenient, isn't it?

Seriously?  This is 2018.  We are seeing a flagrant abuse of our constitution nearly everywhere.  Even the White House seems to be making up their own rules.

"I want you to tell me if you're a Christian or not." What's next?  Lock us up for failure to disclose?  I'll grant you one better.

The ACLU wants you!

Relax?

Car back to shop. Again.
Cell phone dies.
Traffic jam.

Trip home in loaner car.
Temporarily repaired cell phone.
Another traffic jam.

And this was my week to relax.