I wandered over to our garage property. I call it “ours“ even though it now belongs to Seth and Katie. I never really said good bye to this land, a half acre overlooking Nelson with a view so beautiful it is still hard to believe we will never see it out the front window of our family home. See when we bought this place, 3 half acre lots, we had a whole plan of how we were going to work things.
(This is not a great pic, and yes we NEED to fall that big mostly dead conifer, but I am sure you get the idea)
The plan was to live on the lot with the house (the house we live in now). Build on the garage property and use the other lot, which has a barn, for livestock and gardens. In the end we would sell the lot with the house and end up with our dream home and garden on one acre, 5 minutes from downtown Nelson. By selling the house and lot we lived in while building we could pay off our mortgage entirely. We would have realized a dream we set in place 10 years earlier.
Sometimes things don’t go as planned.
Our lives changed considerably. I usually say things changed “after Chris’ accident” but to be honest, our lives changed long before that, back when we lived in Pemberton. These changes did not add up to a couple who could build our dream home, at least not yet. When finances became an issue we made the tough decision to sell the garage lot, the one with the best view and building potential, we knew it was the one that would sell. As I walked around the property, drinking from Seth’s mason jar filled with pure clean mountain water untouched by an human processing, I thought about the whole new life that we had created. It doesn’t include the property I went to say good bye to tonight, what it does in include is Seth and Katie and their new baby boy. Seth helped Chris fix our roof today. He and Katie brought us dried apples for Christmas. They will bring so much more into our life than a half acre and a big building for cars. Next door is Al and Massa, who will bring even more life to our community on the mountain in 6 weeks when they have their own baby. Then there is Oma and Opa, a couple in their 80’s who know more about this mountain than anyone. And another couple who were just married...no word on kids yet. Then there are the friends, all the people who wander up here to visit and help us to create our community, and come up for a wiener roast and a warm place to crash for the night.
Chris left for a parent teacher meeting shortly after I got home, Seth left too. I am now writing, while the kids are cleaning up after dinner with Richard. They only came into the house because they finally gave up shooting the bow as the sun set...at 7:38pm!!!! It is official summer is FINALLY coming...and it is about time!
We lived a blessed life!
So this is the last journal question ever...I am feeling the pressure a little here...but it is pretty easy to just follow the flow of the entry and go with “How are you blessed? ” the final question in the final journal. 12 days journal #366
All I got to do now is finish out this commitment...4 more days... wow.
In having moments when I am present. And having the desire to be so.
ReplyDeleteMan I feel blessed all the fuckin' time. Truly. Just hanging out with my family or going for a walk in the woods. Life is wonderful and god loves the ever loving shit out of me.
ReplyDeleteBTW this was an excellent post, just so...clear and crisp and cool, like our water.
I feel blessed when I appreciate what I have ... and I suffer when I don't.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Can I come for a wienie roast one day? :)
Blessings to you,
Gisele
Once again, I feel like Chris pretty much answered the question on my behalf (his first paragraph may not be in my own words, but they pretty much sum up what I wanted to say without having to think about how I wanted to word it).
ReplyDeleteGiven some of the sh*t I've survived, I feel blessed just to be alive, and even more blessed to find myself mostly happy.