Your inner calling, versus You. Are you listening?

Change is difficult. It feels temporarily destabilizing to all humans, which is why we tend to avoid it like the plague! So, whether life has thrown you a curveball (like it did me, when my CA home burned down in the 2025 wildfires) or you wanna launch yourself into a new job or relationship, remodel your home, or do virtually anything tha feels different to ya, it’s gonna take a bit of time to adjust and get used to.

I kept thinking the entire four years of the Biden administration, who do I have to sleep with, to get OFF this movie?! I told all my friends, I’d move to a politically red state in a heartbeat, if I could fathom leaving my beloved, ‘Little Corner of Paradise’ (my home). When it left me, there was nothing keeping me in California.

I’ll be throwing an open house gathering for my neighbors and friends soon, here in Tennessee. I’ve gone out of my way to make new associations and friendships, ‘cause I was barely acquainted with just one person (my realtor friend) when I relocated to this part of the country.

This upcoming party is to celebrate my one year anniversary of living in and adapting to my new home. It’s taken this long to begin to feel like this isn’t just a magnificent house I’m staying in, that belongs to somebody else… an air B&B, if you will.

I love the process of nesting in a new environment, but when ya have to start from scratch, ‘cause you’ve lost everything you’ve ever owned and treasured, the luxury of time being ‘on your side’ to make decisions regarding furnishings, eludes you. You simply wanna return to a sense of normalcy, and feeling grounded and centered as quickly as possible. There IS no soft (or safe) place for you to land anymore, and nothing about your surroundings is the least bit familiar.

I write to you about these things (amongst other meanderings here on Substack) because it’s been a cathartic and important part of my recovery process. Nobody ever thinks, “my life will radically change one of these days, soon.” We develop certain ideations about our existence like, “okay, given my age, this will be my Forever Home.” We accept it as a natural course of our personal evolution, such like I imagine most do when they marry, and believe they’ll grow old with that person to whom they’ve committed themselves in a public ceremony.

I occasionally think of Gloria Steinem. She married very late in life at 66, having found someone (I’m presuming) she didn’t want to live without. They were happily wedded for only 3 years, before he succumbed to lymphoma, and died. Can you even imagine the trauma of finally finding a partner you could love, respect and admire enough to sail off into the sunset with, and your marvelous fantasy of Happily Ever After is cut so short? I find this almost too excruciating to ponder~ how about You? Her autobiographical book will be released this coming September, incidentally.

I’ve always said, I take nothing for granted. In hindsight, I lied. I did believe I’d one day be carried out in a pine box from my former house. It was the first home I purchased at a rather advanced age, and I naturally presumed it would be my last. Life, God and The Universe, apparently had different plans.

I do love my new environment. Tennessee is a beautiful state (it’s an understatement), and my area is particularly gorgeous in spring and summer, when the color green blankets this entire region for as far as you can see. Even driving to my local Publix supermarket is a wondrous treat for the eyes, with magnificent trees lining each side of these narrow roads. You truly feel like you’ve landed in a place as close to Heaven as you’ll ever know, prior to your expiration date.

For this entire past year, I’ve wished I’d have moved to this part of the country much earlier, like 30 years ago. In retrospect though, I understand that my professional life could never have advanced as it did, had I not resided right where I was. While navigating life in California was never easy (or inexpensive), it was the right place for me in many ways. I have no regrets about it. Things usually happen as they’re meant to.

I’m just hoping to remain as healthy and vibrant as possible, so I can relish the years I have remaining in this great locale~ because Life has once again brilliantly confirmed for me, ya can’t take ANYTHING for granted. Perhaps this is as it should be, so that we’re reminded of how important it is to live and love fully, each day we’re still breathing… just a special note to all you pet lovers.

Some unexpected surprises are absolutely marvelous! Great things happen that we could never in a million years, have pre-imagined. Other surprises we think we’ll never surmount, survive or make it to the other side of. I’m here to reassure ya, you will.

I’m wishing each and every one of you, absolutely Everything you wish for yourself and the courage to go for it, even when it feels a little scary. Afterall, as much as we’d like to think so, we have zero guarantees about Tomorrow as we travel along this twisted and winding road.