Home At Last!

... and back on the internet! This is a photo of my girls walking hand-in-hand down a lonely road in Imnaha, a remote little town in a remote corner of Oregon. Though my daughters are seven years apart in age, the transitory nature of this past year (not to mention six months in a yurt, and a month in a motel, and a house that we didn't end up moving into) have gifted them with a relationship that I think might not have been possible otherwise. They are constant companions -- which means they fight fiercely--yes, but also play and create together. And of course tend with zeal and compassion to their chickens!

And yes, it makes a difference to live in a house again. Much as I loved living in the yurt--hearing the barred owls at night, walking to and from the barn to get water and having a true connection with the outdoors (after all a yurt is something of a glorified tent!)--and experiencing the magic of living "in the round", there was a transitory feel about living in that structure. My friend Chantel, who has also lived in a yurt, noted to me that many peoples who used round structures for their dwellings (tipis, for instance, as well as yurts) moved from one place to another. In her experience, everyone she knew who lived in a yurt was or found themselves to be in a place of transition. Perhaps the 'round' nature of the yurt or tipi calls its inhabitants to make significant life changes and be in motion?

Anyway, I love our little house--and it is small! It's a third the size of our former home on Vashon! (the house, not the yurt :-) ). But there is a sweet simplicity and practicality about the place. We are warm when its cold out (so far!), and cool when it's hot. There is space here for 'enough' of our things. I feel sometimes as if I'm on a boat, as I attempt to stash a few more things in clever places around this house. The house itself has a symmetry that offers an interesting counterpoint to our former 'living in the round', and feels very sturdy, suggesting that, if we wanted, we could be here for a long time and be happy, No matter what we decide, we will be here for awhile. But I still dream of living where the stars are just blazing in the night, no light pollution. Here in town--even a small town--there are street lights. But not far away, you do get that incredible night sky. When we stayed in Imnaha the sweep of the Milky Way was so bright and close I felt I could reach out and scoop some into my mouth!

Okay, enough for now! Blessings of Autumn to all of you!