Three Years Ago Today

Three years ago today we closed on our home in Maine, selling our beloved space and all it contained.

We left the dishes we received as wedding gifts a decade earlier stacked neatly in the cabinets. We left the dining room table we built with our own hands (and those of our sweet friend, Emy, who offered not only her hands to the job but also her laughter) one sunny weekend our first summer there. We left the bookcases from Ikea that took hours to assemble and us to the edge of our wits.

The teapot handpainted in the Polish style that I adored and used nearly every snowy afternoon during our long Maine winters. The chest of drawers that had traveled with my Navy family as part of my parents’ bedroom set when I was growing up and I’d refinished during finals week my second year of law school. The canvas print of one of my very first photographs of Maine, a sunrise at the Portland Head Light where any doubts I’d had about our move were swept away with the crashing waves on that rocky slice of coastline…

Tucson: A Curious Guide

Falling In Love

I came across this passage in my reading this week, written by priest, theologian, writer, and activist Matthew Fox:

“I propose that we can fall in love several times a day for the rest of our lives…We could fall in love with a star, of which there are 200 billion in our galaxy alone. Or a species of wildflower... Or a species of bird, of tree, of plant. Or with another human being- preferably one different from ourselves…We could fall in love with music, poetry, painting, dance. If we fell in love with one of Mozart’s works each week, we would have seven years of joy. How could we ever be bored?”

These words keep singing in my head, resonant with such incredible truth. In a single succinct paragraph, this man slices right to the heart of living a full, rich, meaningful, and wondrous life. Curiosity manifested as love, as wonder, as awe. To look out upon the unknown and instead of fear, we fall in love. How singularly beautiful is that…

Authentic*

It’s Sunday morning as I write this. Justin left for work in the wee hours and I have been holed up in this bed ever since, reading and writing and generally avoiding the stack of work I planned last night for “tomorrow” (you know, when it seemed like “tomorrow” would magically have way more hours in it and I would, of course, have boundless energy and be magically able to do ALL THE THINGS)…

Leave Our Mark

I looked at them for a long time. I just couldn’t get enough.

It was late in the day and we were alone on Signal Hill, our truck the only vehicle at the trailhead. As we hiked toward the hill, it looked initially as though we’d only be able to see them from afar, that we’d have to use our binoculars to get a sense of the texture, of the grit of symbol carved into stone. But the trail continued around, winding its way up the mound until we stood close enough to reach out our hands and run them across each line and curve. We didn’t touch them, of course, but the proximity was a siren call, the desire to lay my hands on the stone and feel the ancient symbols breathtaking in its intensity…

Curiosity On The Ground

I have been talking a whole lot lately about curiosity as our ultimate weapon against the fear and paralyzing overwhelm of change. While fear is trying to make us hide in the doorways and play it safe, curiosity peeks its head around the corner and whispers, “oooh…now THAT might be interesting…” and gives us the little nudge we need to take our first tiny steps.

But this idea doesn’t really mean anything in the abstract, does it? We can know that curiosity is a tool that can serve us and we can believe it can make our life better and a whole lot more interesting, but how do we take it from concept to reality? How do we actually apply it?

What does curiosity look like on the ground- in our real lives on a daily basis?

Adjustment Time

I am writing this morning from under my fluffy comforter, nestled into my bed, Tessie snoring beside me.

We arrived here in Saratoga on Saturday and have been running around doing the 647,000 things big and small required to settle into a new life…

So Long For Now

Well…this is my last dispatch from Tucson. We hit the road on Sunday and begin making our way to northern California.

I’ve said it before, but this is always a bittersweet time for me. When we land in a new place, it always seems like three months is this enormous wealth of time…

Onward & Upward

Has it really already been three months???

It has, unbelievably. We are closing out our time here in Tucson and have just signed on the dotted line for our next assignment:

Showing Up

Today has been one of those days where I sit down to write and then immediately have to pee/ get a drink of water/ check my email/ comment on Instagram/ go pee again (hydration, man!)/ eat a snack/ check the mail…I think you get the drift.

I was reminded recently of a quote by amazing painter Chuck Close:

“Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work.”

I love this, you guys.