Home

I have returned home from my old home and it was painful. It was also healing. It was wonderful to be with my family. I do have some photos to share later, but for now I want to give you this, it sums up how I am feeling right now: 

The Road Between

To stand up and be worn
to something deeper
is a pledge that living
forces us to keep

I drove 500 miles down the California coast with the mountains on the left and the ocean on the right. For days they spoke to me of standing up and wearing down. Of course, I was driving a road we have made down the middle. During the fourth day, the road became a ribbon. It was here it was most beautiful.
I found the world out there all in here, and now I know:
The current of life requires us to stand up, again and again, and we are not defeated when we are worn down, just exposed anew at a deeper level. We are meant to live between the two.
In this way, life keeps getting more and more precious.
It is a natural law like gravity or osmosis: Stand up to be worn bare. It is how everything in the way is thinned, so we can feel just how thoroughly alive we are.
-Mark Nepo-
I am worn down, but still standing.
I will get back to visiting blogs soon.
XOXO

Blue Monday

Okay, everyone has departed and I am sad and blue and sort of slug like. My plan is to eat comfort food and love up my animal boys and talk on the phone to good friends who will cheer me up. It also helps to come here and write it out and go visit some of my blog friends who have way more to complain about than me :-).
Some highlights of the visit:
Seeing "Julie & Julia" with my mom.
Drinking absinthe with my sister in law C in a fancy bar (I don't drink often, but from now on this is my drink of choice if I can find it, wonderful stuff, or perhaps it was the company :).
Having a most wonderful dinner with the whole group at a new restaurant in town called the Love Apple.
Just being with my mom and P&C was lovely and we all had fun, both mom and P&C bought paintings from me (I gave them a real deal :-), and that felt really good and supportive. Thank you sweet hearts that you all are.
That's it for now, I am off to cheer myself up. I will be catching up with all of you in the next couple days. Love and kisses.

Another Quickie

I am sitting here waiting for my mom to wake up and my brother and his wife to arrive from the hotel and thought I would just give you a sign that I was still alive. I have been having fun and tomorrow everyone departs. I will be very sad to see them all go. I am sure I will be pitiful to morrow :-). I am missing all of you and hope that you are well and happy. Happy Sunday! XOXO

My brother

This lovely photo of the ocean by Geraint Smith.

This will be a short post. I want to ask all of you,

no matter what or whom you pray to, to please

send some good thoughts to my brother J. He

is the brother who just came for a visit and he had

a stroke on his way home, actually he had two.

He is in a hospital and still has not made it home.

This stroke affected his eyes and so far we are

not sure what caused them. He is in the hospital

until they figure it out. This is a bit scary. I just

talked to him and he sounds fine, but it is still

scary for those of us who love him. Thanks everyone.