Every year in January, it is customary for people to make resolutions. I know, it's superstitious to some degree. To me, it's a combination of a prayer to my creator and a pledge to myself and my loved ones.
In addition to always praying for my family's continued blessings & help in some new diet/exercise venture, I always include a promise to myself to make more time to be creative.
I've always wanted to start a blog....not because I believe I am the quintessential advice-giver or source of knowledge. I guess I'm just doing it primarily for me...a way to keep my sanity, a place to share ideas and let it all out. And if someone else gets help along the way, bonus.
So it's today according to....me. Most days I'll post thoughts from me and occasionally I'll post information from other source I find helpful.
Today it's all about finding a way to see beauty.....squeezing that small moment into each day to appreciate the beauty of something or share beauty with someone else.
Yesterday, I was cleaning up at our home-site currently under construction. It seems lately there is only time for work, obligations, responsibility. A thunderstorm came up and I took cover in the garage and continued cleaning up scrap pieces of wood and sawdust.
As the humid breathless conditions in Alabama gave way to the cool unexpected rainy breeze, I thought about how beautiful it is....the sound of wind in the tree tops, the patter of the rain on the freshly dug earth, the streams that formed flowing toward the foundation of the house gently curving around it and continuing out into the field behind. I walked back to the covered, unfinished porch and watched as 2 beautiful horses grazed in the distance, oblivious to the rain. Suddenly, all of the headaches involved in building a home dissipated with that wind and were replaced with peace and the promise of what was to come.
We are likely 2 months away from calling this our home night after night and we have been living with my parents for a year now. It has been difficult, to say the least, to maintain our 4 person family unit with the grandparents always around. The constant presence of other adults in the house also puts quite a damper on the romance in your life, as well. My husband, children & I are living in the house where I grew up. There is surely something creepy about being romantic in a room that was formerly my brother's and then mine.
Don't get me wrong. With my parents aging and in increasingly poor health, I know I will look back on this part of the journey and be thankful for it. In truth, I already am. I'm just looking forward to the next chapter.
After the storm had eased, I got into my car, put down the windows, put on some Smoky Mountain slow bluegrass and drove well-below the speed limit until returning to my parents' home (my temporary dwelling)....all the way there taking in the smells, sights and sounds of a moment where I slowed down and became less focused on what must be done and more in tune with the elation about what is to come.
