I've Been Away...

Just wanted to pop in for a brief moment to put a few words down while the whole house is sleeping. I feel like this is a time in my life where there is so much potential for radical change that I've been trying to figure out where our opportunities are leading us. We've been contemplating and planning for a move for the last few years. It turns out that while I grew up surrounded by farms and forests, land and trees - and while I can enjoy the solitude and beauty of nature, I am a city girl at heart . We're moving from the exurbs of SE Michigan back to Ann Arbor - not sure if I want to share all of the details before everything is settled, but I am ecstatic.

Being able to spend summers in my mother's hometown in the north of England made me fall in love with town living. I was at home taking the bus into town to fill my bag with the makings of the evenings dinner. I walked with delight among the market stalls filled with flowers, fish, fruits and vegetables. I loved the jumble sales that my mom avoided - all of the old beautiful fabric and dishes, silly toys and games; and the vendors who were so interesting or funny, cranky or sweet. We played in a vacant lot behind the row of homes where my mother grew up. An abandoned door was a desk for our school, a random piece of chalk a treasure. We stayed up late into the night, the sky not yet dark to play and laugh or spy on the teenagers outside our window. I remember trying to spy on my sister to see if she would kiss the boy who lived down the street. I remember being content without so much stuff, and at home living more simply than we did in the States.

I want to offer this lesson to my children; a gift for them to keep in their hearts. Freedom to be able to give more and help more and realize that we are all born of this earth. We all have gifts and challenges, and in order to bring out what is beautiful in others - we have to be brave enough to give from what is beautiful in us.