Hey, Hey, Hey We’re on Vacation

My Google Photos keeps sending me memory joggers. Ya know, screen pop-ups saying here’s what you were doing on this day last year. It’s fun. And I realize last year about this time I was making barn quilts with my sisters up at Sadie’s Place and celebrating our birthdays with Lettie. The Little Guy was clean and shiny and waiting patiently in the driveway. Ready to begin an adventure across Canada. Without a map. Without reservations. Without deadlines. And oh what a grand adventure it was!

These past few months since our return from Mexico have been FULL. We always return in mid-April knowing we will have some routine maintenance requirements on our houses. And fully expecting some surprise projects. We were not disappointed by our project-prediction. But we were surprised and exhausted by the twisty-turny walk-on-the-wild-side nature of things. I will spare you the details, but will say that for 6 weeks we did battle with bamboo and ivy, baby birds in the rafters, rats in the basement, mama and baby raccoons in the attic, and additional encounters with fire ants, ticks, rain and humidity.

There’s a song that found me last year. It’s become a bit of a mantra. It goes like this, “hey, hey, hey I’m on vacation every single day ‘cuz I love my occupation.”  Our primary “occupation” is managing rental houses and a mountain AirB&B. And generally speaking we do enjoy it. But then there’s the inevitable slippery slope leading to a seemingly endless string of events that fit in the Important-and-Urgent Box. We prefer to run our business in the Important-but-Not-Urgent Box. This Spring however, ahhhh this Spring…this spring felt relentlessly URGENT. 

Whew!!!! So, accompanied by a lot of anxiety, a bit of depression, and more than a few times of saying, EXPLATIVES we made it past urgent to downright easy-does-it. Now……………………………………deep breath. We can really start singing We’re On Vacation. Switching to our other occupation…..LIFE-LOVING-LIFE. And all its big and little celebrations

BUMBLE BEE MENTALITY – AND THE WISDOM OF LETTING GO

I have been trying to launch our travel stories. We have been writing and talking and enjoying the bliss of cool mountain mornings. I realize today that I really just needed to sink knee-deep into utter non- productivity. While talking about the blog, and as if to confirm my suspicions about writers block, we were visited by one huge bumble bee! A very busy bee. Moving from my journal to Steve’s book and back to my hand. It tickled. Hovering and bumbling as busy bees do. Two things are attributed to the name of Debra, wisdom and the bee. There is balance in the universe. Wisdom tells me to just let things 🐝 To sit with the ahhhh. Not waiting for the ah-hah! Just the ahhhh that moves into the essence of being. Sweet as honey!

The Blessings of Sitting Places

Sometimes I just sits and thinks. And sometimes I just sit.

As we prepare for a month in the mountains at Sadie’s Place I begin by sitting. And while I am enjoying the many virtues of this sitting place on our screened porch at Blue Heron Farm, I imagine myself in other sitting places. The glider on the front porch at Sadie’s (mornings). The rocker on the terrace, facing west (evenings). And the newest place, by the stream at Little Guy Landing.

Often when we travel cross-country we enjoy a wide array of camp sites. And eventually we’ll hear ourselves describing a desire for the perfect little site by a stream with cool mountain air. Tucked into some trees. No internet. No electricity. No people. And we’ll end up grinning and saying “oh, that’s our AirB&B, Sadie’s Place. And that’s when we know it’s time to boogie-woogie back to the NC mountains. 

Last year we LOVED crossing Canada. This year, it’s our own backyard. And the creation of Little Guy Landing.

North Carolina is known as the variety vacationland. 

We accept your invitation North Carolina! Time to hitch- up and head for the mountains. Being cool is oh, so cool!

I Love Right Now

I love this place. I love how easy I feel here. It’s both the beauty and the memories. Everywhere my gaze lands brings me a sense of deep peace. Gratitude is usually the first feeling to emerge. But awe and wonder are there as well. 

At this stage of life it’s easy to lament what didn’t happen, what might happen. Or even feel driven to make something happen.

For me, the gift of this stage is being able to sit with what is.

Right here. Right now. 

From my front porch glider I see shrubs that were uprooted and transplanted from a family member’s yard many miles away. Now, fully at home and thriving. Only possible because of passing time and slow growth. What does this teach me?

I see a stack of firewood that was once a mighty tree that did its part to hold up the hammock by the stream. A sweet place where naps and good books and giggling children could sense its magnificence. Again, only the passing of time and the natural cycle of things could create this still-life moment. What does this teach me?

The porch glider, the hummingbird feeder, the tire swing. All hold their space. And each in its own way invite me to breathe slowly, deeply. And ponder. And smile. 

BooBoo sits each morning on the brick steps where Sadie loved to lie each evening. BooBoo, greeting the new day with all its possibilities in exactly the same place that Sadie laid as she breathed her last breath, at sunset, in peace. I have learned so much observing their ability to just be.

Gratitude, Simplicity, Order. Harmony, Beauty, Joy. Life Loving Life.

AND FROM STEVE. MORNING ROUTINE

Debbie thought you might find my morning routine interesting. It has changed my life. After I wake, I walk down to the mountain creek and take off all my clothes. I am hidden in the foliage of the creek and I submerge myself for about 30 seconds in the cold water. Careful to keep my head under the water. This wakes up my brain.

I don’t dry off and I go into the house with a towel around the waist and tell Alexa to play whatever music is going on in my head. This morning. I said “Alexa play Baby it’s cold outside.” While I am still wet. I embrace Debbie, getting her clothes wet. She protests, and then laughs. She leads me around the dance floor. Sometimes the kitchen and sometimes the living room. 

She always wanted to dance professionally so I like to keep her dream alive. Then we go out on the porch with coffee and talk. Meditate. Journal. Whatever feels right.

SADIE’S PLACE

I had a great aunt in Lexington, North Carolina named Aunt Sadie.   She rarely if ever left home. She lived with her elderly sisters in a big house in the heart of town. She was an old maid, never married. And she was eccentric.

The only time she ever left the North Carolina was to drive with her sisters to the Chicago World’s Fair. When a curious family member asked “what route did you take?” she said, “we went through Mocksville”. That was the next town over… just 20 miles down the road.

We named our cat after Aunt Sadie; eccentric, mysterious, aloof. And we named Sadie’s Place after our cat. Sadie loved Sadie’s Place so much she would hide on the day we were driving back to the farm. At age 17 she wouldn’t die until we took her shivering body back to the front porch of Sadie’s Place where she passed peacefully after a couple of hours sitting in her favorite spot, warmed by the setting sun.

Once a year I tell Debbie we should sell Sadie’s Place.. “It’s too much work for too little money.” 

She pauses and looks at me like she would die if I take away Sadie’s Place. Then I say “You are right. We will never sell Sadie’s Place. “