And so it goes.

Have ya missed me? I’ve definitely missed YOU! Re-nesting after a move has historically been fun for me and easy… but I’ve had to start from scratch and build a brand new environment for myself, which is a less joyful experience. In case you came in late to this movie, the California wildfires consumed what I’d thought of as my “forever home” in that godforsaken state, and now I’m in Tennessee~ Chattanooga, to be precise.

I’m loving every minute of being here, incidentally. The people are warm, friendly, sincere and super-helpful: “If you need anything at all, just call or text me,” and they’re not just giving lip service~ they actually follow-through! My personality and spirit feel like they’ve found a real home here. Others are a lot like Me. What a surprise!!!

Sometimes it takes a catastrophic event in our life to budge us outta where we are, and land us with a place or person that’s a far more congruent fit with our sense of contentment and joy. It’s utterly gorgeous here, and I feel like I chose the perfect place to land~ but it’s not been completely without its challenges.

After nearly 4 months living in hotel rooms, I’ve had time to reflect. I’m in a huge new house now, but it could be quite awhile before it feels like “Home.” Nothing in this space feels familiar. Not my new cooking utensils, not the vast amount of roominess this house provides, nothing. I’ve described to close friends, this feels analogous to being on a camping trip that won’t end ‘cause your car’s broken down, you’re trapped far away from home, and you’re craving all your familiar creature comforts~ but that ‘place’ you love and yearn to get back to, no longer exists.

My life has essentially been daily deliveries from Amazon, and building a collection of so many cardboard boxes stacked up in my new garage, you’d think I was intending to insulate a bomb shelter. Anyhow, this house is just starting to feel livable, what with some furniture I purchased that due to necessity, which occurred without my typical hyper-discernment and usual deliberation. I saw it, I liked it, I bought it. 1 - 2 - 3, it’s the speediest I’ve ever made important decisions!

My new Maytag washer didn’t work right on the first try. The drain and spin spin cycle failed, and I was left with a tub of sopping wet towels and a plush, furry bathrobe I couldn’t quite manage to manually wring out. Who knew, a trusted old brand like Maytag would end up being such a remarkably dismal, shitty failure?!

Why am I not surprised? Since the fire that decimated my entire Altadena town and left it looking like a war zone, everything that could go wrong, has. It forced me to wonder if I was being tested. Just what was the lesson?! Was this some kinda sicko joke God chose to play on me? Inquiring minds REALLY wanna know!

Surprisingly enough, through this entire, stressful fiasco, my hair has not gone into super-shedding mode. I’ve grappled with that outcome for more years than I wanna remember. Even a little stress would typically trigger barely sustainable hair loss, and I’d come to accept it along with a litany of other ‘shit-that-hits-the-fan’ events as my ageing process slides me not so gently into physiological realities I never even dreamed could be part of this process!

In my forties (best years of my life up to that juncture incidentally), I was resolute about aging gracefully. In hindsight, I’m confronted to some degree with the pure folly of that determination~ yet I’m consciously endeavoring to roll with the punches.

I wish I’d had the courage to leave what was familiar to me and move to this glorious southern state, 25 - 30 years ago. I truly do! By the grace of God, I can operate my business from anywhere in the world. Saving and enhancing people’s lives is not a geographically specific career choice, and I’m grateful for this on numerous levels!

This is a post I’d begun writing during my lengthy hotel stays after losing my beloved home. I’ve dug it outta the archives and modified it a bit, because I feel it’s still worth sharing.

Some time ago, I sent out a newsletter that spoke of how we limit ourselves from manifesting our desires and dreams solely based on our frame of reference. We’ll stay with what’s familiar, whether it makes us feel miserable or not. We’ll remain in a toxic relationship, we’ll stay too close to our irresponsible and/or abusive parent, we’ll keep living in a region that doesn’t serve us in terms of providing nourishing, gratifying experiences, etc., simply because that’s all we’ve ever known!

We’ve all been there. Change of any kind feels destabilizing to all humans for a short time, which is why we usually avoid it like the plague! Along with this fact, a part of us believes, “this is the best it could ever be.”

Well folks, I’m walking, living proof that there’s absolutely NO validity to that belief. My “little corner of Paradise” as I’d always referred to it, had to completely burn to the ground in order to nudge me outta my comfort zone, and into what feels distinctly like Heaven . . .

and so it goes.