My apologies, friends, for being off the air so long. Selling my home in Humboldt… well, it all went very slow, until it went very fast, and the bottom line is that I finished clearing out the old homestead today and will be heading to Portland tomorrow morning.
Through the move-out process, we’ve been staying at a lovely little beach bungalow in the Manila Dunes… “we” being me and the three cats. They are all being very much themselves about this disruption. Dude, who is nineteen and the King of Object Impermanence, is having the time of his life. “Let’s stay up late and tell stories!” Nutmeg nests under her favorite green blanket, nursing grudges and planning reprisals. Her sister Pen splits her time between brandishing her soft belly for cuddles and planning acts of destruction and derring-do. “Macrame wall hangings! Neat-o!” They each blame each other for this turn of events, and in the middle of the night, I hear them in stereo, hissing and growling at each other. They are sisters the way Olivia de Haviland and Joan Fontaine were sisters.
I wish I had something profound to say that would kindle your heart as we start this Advent/adventure. We all wait and prepare for desired change at all points in our lives, while we dread upheaval and sometimes turn a deaf ear to the call to do more, to grow and to deepen and explore. Our preparations, whether practical or spiritual, will never quite meet the full reality that rises meets us, and there’s never a perfect balance between waiting and doing – though both are needed.
But we do what we can. And we seek in the new both what will nourish us for the journey, and where, within the call that’s put us into motion, is the navigation to the place of our flourishing and the work we’ve been given to do. Waiting. Listening. Trying. Doing.
So wish us all luck! As Bishop Bill Swing once said, “All roads lead to birth,” and birth, with all its hardship and messiness, is the only way more life gets into the world. And that’s always a good destination.
Thank you! We arrived safely in Grants Pass -- and on to Portland in the morning. Hope you're well!
Thank you! Yes, a zoom would be awesome... and we don't even need to wait till I'm settled!